BRING IT HOME

The Increasing Value of a College Degree
Working your way through college used to be fairly common in the United States. According to a 2015 study by the

Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, 40% of college students work 30 hours or more per week.

At the same time, the cost of college seems to rise every year. The data show that between the 2000–2001

academic year and the 2019–2020 academic year, the cost of tuition, fees, and room and board has slightly more

than doubled for private four-year colleges, and has increased by a factor of almost 2.5 for public four-year colleges.

Thus, even full time employment may not be enough to cover college expenses anymore. Working full time at

minimum wage—40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year—earns $15,080 before taxes, which is substantially less
326 14 • Labor Markets and Income

than the more than $25,000 estimated as the average cost in 2022 for a year of college at a public university. The
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