Is it fair for the pay difference? Isn’t it like being prejudice, by saying, since you have tons of money you deserve tons of money (even if you don’t have a clue on how to do the job)? And if you don’t have money (for school) you deserve a job with low pay (No matter how much you know)?
I think you’re making some invalid assumptions. For one thing, having a college degree doesn’t necessarily mean that you have tons of money. People have been known to complete college using scholarships and student loans, for example.
Second, many college degrees don’t necessarily prepare you for high-paying jobs. On the average, college-educated people will earn more, but that’s not always the case.
And third, people aren’t paid based on the amount of money they HAVE. Rather, they are typically paid based on the type of service hwihch they provide, which is entirely fair. It just so happens that having a college degree will typically mean that you can provide services for which there is greater demand, and thus, which merit greater financial remuneration.
It’s bullshit unless you’re preparing for a specific profession.
I have a BA in psych and a master’s in social work, i can tell you it’s definitely not about the money.
my brother stocks groceries, makes more than i do.
My life is simply richer for doing what i am suited to do.
A bachelor’s degree simply tells an employer that you have a certain level of intelligence, that you stuck it out in school for four years (or 6 in my case), meaning that you can delay gratification, look at the big picture,
in short you have a larger, firmer foundation upon which to build than someone with less education.
so yes, someone with a degree does deserve more money on the promise that they can grow more.
poverty isn’t just about money, it’s about access to power, it’s about ability to affect change, about the ability to move about society with less restrictions, and understand the world in more depth.
so my brother who makes more than i do is also poorer.
Nicely said Sir.
Without a college degree, what do you have that tells employers that you are likely to be a hard worker? Or that you have had exposure to a variety of topics and are more well-rounded? Or that you have drive and ambition? Nothing, really. A college graduate is more likely to be literate and capable of critical thinking. What acceptable assurance does a non-graduate have to give a future employer he’s just as capable? Nothing.
Is the pay difference fair? Of course. A degree is the same as experience in the job in that it tell employers that a candidate is likely to perform the job well, or at least require less training and supervision. As this type of person would put less of a strain on the employer’s time, energy, and resources, he is preferable to the nongraduate and is more likely to be hired. Come promotions/bonus time, he is more likely to have performed well and with fewer problems, so he should be rewarded for that and promoted and/or paid more.
Isn’t it a prejudice? Of course, but not one like racism or sexism. The vast majority of people can earn a degree. There’s nothing barring women, poor people, black people, or religious people from earning a degree. There is simply a preference for people who have a degree, because of what the degree says about them as a potential worker.
It seems that there’s a more fundamental mistake the OP is making: that one’s salary is, in any served, deserved, or intrinsically related to one’s job, education, or qualifications. It’s not. Labour is a market, where workers are the sellers and businesses are the consumers. Your salary is determined by how much you can sell yourself for, and how much an employer is willing to pay.
For instance, tech workers are still relatively overpaid because of high demand for them. That situation is correcting itself since the dot-com bubble burst, and the market was flooded with IT gurus with little experience and no degree, but it’s still somewhat the case. I know: I have to hire them, and I have a hell of a time convincing the president of the company that we have to pay a bit more for them just to get reasonably good candidates. My systems administrator pointed out in his last performance review that he was earning much less than the median salary for sysadmins in the area (implying that if I didn’t do something about it, I’d be hiring again). It was an uphill battle getting him raised to the median because the president was offended at the salary inflation in the market.
To the question of university degrees: I require a B.S. C.S. for my systems engineers, because it implies (not with certainty) that the candidate can learn, that he has exposure to the theoretical side of the field, and has some experience working in his field (on assignments, etc.), and I’m willing to pay more for that. If someone impressed the shit out of me in the interview, I’d probably forgo the requirment, but they’d have to really, really impress me.
The value of a college degree is in the following:
- It demonstrates you can commit to something (a degree) for four years.
- It is a quantifyable representation of knowledge and skill in a particular field - engineering, business, psychology, etc.
- College provides a network of peers. I find that this continues to be a valuable asset long after graduation - jobs, potential clients, contacts
- You get exposure to people and situations you wouldn’t find living at home in your parents basement, smoking dope and drinking beers with your highschool buddies
- You might actually learn something useful
In general you don’t make “tons of money” by simply having a college degree. It still takes a lot of work and luck to get into the “tons” income bracket.
Well, to take it down a level, is it fair to pay high school graduates more than high school drop outs?
Of course not. Most high school drop outs are probably wonderful people, but can I say that most are competent? I suppose it depends on what I want my employees to do. If it’s menial work (like cleaning toilets), sure. They’re probably competent. How about operating a cashier register? Well, if I had my choice between a guy who couldn’t pass algebra and a guy who could, I want the latter. It doesn’t matter if mastery of algebra isn’t a necessary skill for operating a register. Mastering algebra (or any other high school subject) can be used as a proxy for competence in a number of fields.
The same analogy applies to the OP’s question. There’s only one difference: money. It takes money to go to college for most people. But if college was free, would it still be prejudiced to select college grads over everyone else? I don’t think so.
The first three career jobs I had after I graduated, I was working for people who did not graduate from college. Go figure.
Statistically:
A college grad makes a half million more in a life time.
A high school grad makes a quarter million more in a life time.
The alternative is a drop out.
(We won’t get into PhD’s etc. Suffice it to say the stats are similar)
That said: The value of college is not in money earned. An Electrician probably earns more and has a better pension plan than most college graduates. As does a Carpenter, etc. (Union Jobs, that is.) The value of a college education is in seeing a different world. Seeing in a different way. Feeling in a different way.
Can you get those things outside of college? Sure. It’s just not as easy.
It’s important to note carefully what has been said before in this thread: specifically, college degrees do not confer a higher salary in all cases. In many specific cases, two “equal” employees may be compensated differently depending on their level of education, and this may not seem fair until you realize how little this difference may seem to the person with the education (and how much that cost them).
In my example, I was hired with several other people for the same position. I’m the only one without a college degree, but I’m near the top of the pay scale. In many cases aptitude and a carefully documented work history can be more important. (Don’t construe this as an argument against college. Stay in school, kids! 
)
My wife, who has her master’s degree and is not employed in her relevant profession (ie, her degree does her no financial good), sees things the other way around. Those who put themselves deeply into debt for the commitment of a long term goal get relatively little in the way of compensation for it overall.
Don’t turn this into “haves” vs. “have nots”. Most college graduates were not rich kids who waltzed through, many were hard working individuals who put themselves massively into debt in an attempt to stack the deck slightly in their favor for the future. They should get credit for that, not derision.
There are of course cases where the knowledge required for a job can be only learned in college, say, law or medicine.