I had a comment on another diary about tuition for college recently and wanted to share what I found when looking up the actual statistics on the subject.
I was born in 1962 so this table represents the history during my lifetime of both tuition and minimum wage. The values for tuition and required fees, from the Department of Education, below are based on public, four year institutions, and do not include room and board. I assumed a 50 week year under the reasoning that something could come up at least a couple of times during the year, and I reduced all the data to constant 2019 dollars.
When I was an infant, either of my parents could have paid the average tuition at a state school with a mere 3.89 hours of minimum wage work per week — a Saturday morning flipping burgers. This is the situation, for example, at which President Obama’s mother might have found herself as a student at the University of Hawaii in 1961. It’s a challenge, certainly, especially with a baby, but doesn’t seem impossible.
When I started college in 1980, the amount of time per week had risen by about an hour. That’s a little harder, but still probably manageable. More realistically, I found college to be a full time commitment during the school year, but I did work jobs in the summers that were close to minimum wage and between 30 and 40 hours per week. I didn’t find that to be unreasonably burdensome, and honestly in several of the summer jobs I had I learned quite a bit.
It’s not like that any more.
My youngest child is doing college now. He faces, if he were to expect to work a minimum wage job to pay for it, a 26 hour per week commitment, leaving very little time for actually going to class and doing homework.
And none of these calculations include room and board.
The only realistic options for paying for a four year college degree are family, savings, debt, or scholarship. And I worry sometimes that we’ve fueled an educational arms race where degrees are increasingly thought of as essential for jobs that didn’t used to require them at all.
Tuition and Required Fees for 4 Year Public Institutions and How Much Minimum Wage Work is Needed to Pay For It (2019 Dollars, 50 Week Year)
Year |
Tuition and fees |
Minimum Wage |
Hours needed |
Hours per week |
1963 |
2,029 |
10.43 |
195 |
3.89 |
1964 |
2,103 |
10.30 |
204 |
4.09 |
1965 |
2,248 |
10.14 |
222 |
4.44 |
1966 |
2,375 |
9.84 |
241 |
4.83 |
1967 |
2,365 |
10.72 |
221 |
4.41 |
1968 |
2,315 |
11.76 |
197 |
3.94 |
1969 |
2,440 |
11.15 |
219 |
4.38 |
1970 |
2,549 |
10.53 |
242 |
4.84 |
1971 |
2,674 |
10.10 |
265 |
5.29 |
1972 |
3,020 |
9.78 |
309 |
6.17 |
1973 |
2,833 |
9.21 |
308 |
6.16 |
1974 |
2,545 |
10.37 |
245 |
4.91 |
1975 |
2,515 |
9.97 |
252 |
5.04 |
1976 |
2,702 |
10.33 |
262 |
5.23 |
1977 |
2,689 |
9.70 |
277 |
5.54 |
1978 |
2,582 |
10.38 |
249 |
4.97 |
1979 |
2,444 |
10.21 |
239 |
4.78 |
1980 |
2,387 |
9.62 |
248 |
4.96 |
1981 |
2,486 |
9.42 |
264 |
5.28 |
1982 |
2,703 |
8.87 |
305 |
6.09 |
1983 |
2,901 |
8.60 |
337 |
6.75 |
1984 |
2,986 |
8.24 |
362 |
7.25 |
1985 |
3,115 |
7.96 |
391 |
7.83 |
1986 |
3,269 |
7.81 |
419 |
8.37 |
1987 |
3,414 |
7.54 |
453 |
9.06 |
1988 |
3,494 |
7.24 |
483 |
9.65 |
1989 |
3,605 |
6.91 |
522 |
10.43 |
1990 |
3,627 |
7.44 |
488 |
9.76 |
1991 |
3,940 |
7.98 |
494 |
9.88 |
1992 |
4,240 |
7.74 |
548 |
10.95 |
1993 |
4,462 |
7.52 |
593 |
11.87 |
1994 |
4,585 |
7.33 |
625 |
12.51 |
1995 |
4,741 |
7.13 |
665 |
13.30 |
1996 |
4,836 |
7.74 |
625 |
12.49 |
1997 |
4,945 |
8.20 |
603 |
12.06 |
1998 |
5,047 |
8.08 |
625 |
12.50 |
1999 |
5,088 |
7.90 |
644 |
12.88 |
2000 |
5,143 |
7.65 |
673 |
13.45 |
2001 |
5,392 |
7.44 |
725 |
14.50 |
2002 |
5,715 |
7.32 |
781 |
15.62 |
2003 |
6,340 |
7.16 |
886 |
17.72 |
2004 |
6,745 |
6.97 |
968 |
19.36 |
2005 |
6,917 |
6.74 |
1026 |
20.52 |
2006 |
7,140 |
6.53 |
1093 |
21.86 |
2007 |
7,221 |
7.21 |
1001 |
20.02 |
2008 |
7,564 |
7.78 |
972 |
19.45 |
2009 |
7,972 |
8.64 |
923 |
18.46 |
2010 |
8,298 |
8.50 |
976 |
19.53 |
2011 |
8,719 |
8.24 |
1058 |
21.16 |
2012 |
8,973 |
8.07 |
1111 |
22.23 |
2013 |
9,099 |
7.96 |
1144 |
22.87 |
2014 |
9,285 |
7.83 |
1186 |
23.72 |
2015 |
9,477 |
7.82 |
1212 |
24.24 |
2016 |
9,333 |
7.72 |
1209 |
24.17 |
2017 |
9,368 |
7.56 |
1239 |
24.78 |
2018 |
9,356 |
7.38 |
1268 |
25.35 |
2019 |
9,349 |
7.25 |
1290 |
25.79 |
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