I love the look of shock on people’s faces when I say I had 0 interest in going to college. That’s not a popular opinion in corporate America. But back then, the math just didn’t make sense to me. There I was with a choice between being offered a $45,000 a year salary or paying at least that much to go to college. I thought it was kinda stupid to choose to spend money on school just to *maybe* get more money after school.
I tried to explain this math to my Mom who threw a damn fit. It was absolutely not acceptable in 2003 for someone to just not go to college. Mind you, she was only the 2nd person in our family to attend college. I was the third. Secondary education wasn’t exactly the popular choice.
However, instead of lecturing me like she would about taxes or personal finance, my Mom went straight to the spreadsheet. She was an accountant after all. In a matter of minutes, this woman generated a chart showing my lifetime earnings. It projected that they would top off right around 40 should I choose not to go to college.
College Degree Requirements Are Causing Pay Disparities
I used to tell this story in my 20s and joke that my Mom made up just enough details to successfully scare me into going to college. But according to the latest Payscale research, she was right, even if she definitely made up the projected income math. In the Payscale 2024 College ROI Report, they showed that college graduates earn 37% higher salaries than non-graduates in 2024, consistent with the trend observed since 2010 — indicating that there hasn’t been a decline in the pay premium for college degrees.
Here’s where things got even more interesting to me. In jobs where both college graduates and non-college graduates are hired, there can be wide pay disparities of more than 30% — suggesting possible inequities that unfairly favor those with a degree. So, in plain English, that means people are doing the exact same job and making wildly different sums of money simply because one of them had the privilege of going to college and one did not.
On a positive note, job post degree requirements are gradually disappearing according to Indeed’s Hiring Lab. You can read the whole report here but here are the highlights:
- A majority (52%) of US job postings on Indeed did not mention any formal education requirement as of January 2024, up from 48% at the same time in 2019.
- The share of US job postings requiring at least a college degree fell from 20.4% to 17.8% in the last five years, opening doors for the 64% of US adults without a bachelor’s degree.
- Formal educational requirements are declining in nearly every sector, and mentions of college degrees have fallen since 2019 in 87% of occupational groups analyzed by Indeed.
A Simple Test To Know When To Delete Job Post Degree Requirements
Educational requirements are and always have been an arbitrary and useless way to justify bias for degree holders in the hiring process. For most programs, there are many paths to take. Assuming it was the same experience or education simply because you attain the same degree is a big assumption to make.
Audit your job postings for college degree requirements that don’t matter. Here’s your test. This one is really simple.
- Do you learn how to do the job at school? Think doctor, lawyer, accountant, nurse...
If no, you don’t need the degree. It’s that simple.
