Politicians and pundits love to talk about the character-building experience of working your way through college. But how realistic is that ideal? As one way of answering that question, here’s a thought experiment: Let’s say you’re planning to attend your state’s best-known public university (at the in-state rate, naturally) and you’re hoping a minimum-wage job will cover the cost. How long would you have to work at that job to recoup a year’s worth of tuition and fees?
We’ve created a tool to show you.
To start, we took the average in-state tuition and fees for each state’s flagship institution, dating back to 1998. Then we pulled together each state’s minimum wage over the same time frame. We adjusted all that data for inflation.
For the forthcoming academic year, attending a flagship university will cost about $10,500, on average, while the average minimum wage across states is $7.90. To put that in perspective, if you work a minimum-wage job for 20 hours a week, it would take you about one year and three months to get in the black.
If the federal minimum wage were raised to $15 an hour, a year’s worth of 20-hour work weeks would cover the average in-state tuition and fees in most states. (In Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Illinois — where tuition and fees exceed $15,000 — you’d have work at least two extra months to break even.)
Now, here’s an important point to keep in mind: Tuition and fees are just one part of attending college. They don’t include room and board, books and supplies and other expenses that come with attending college — all of which can double or even triple the costs shown here. At flagships, these estimated costs can range from $8,000 to $19,000. We’re also not accounting for financial aid, which would mitigate the cost for many students, or for income tax and cost of living, which could exacerbate it.
Because we’re using tuition and fees only, the tool will show that in some states, you might actually be able to use work income to pay for the cost of college. For example, you’d have to work about eight months to afford the tuition and fees of $4,891 for the University of Wyoming. Factor in the full cost-of-attendance estimate listed on the university’s website — it’s $19,168 — and you’d have to work about two years and eight months to break even.
Part of the reason public universities exist is to open up opportunities to students who might have limited access to higher education. But the overall message here is clear: The majority of flagships have seen their tuition and fees rise rapidly, while the minimum wage has increased slowly. That shows how difficult the math behind college accessibility can be — and why financial aid is such a difference-maker.
A couple of notes on using this interactive: The maximum number of working hours per week you can enter is 40. And the maximum wage you can enter is $15 an hour. Our calculations below assume that you’ll work 50 weeks a year. For more on our methodology, look below the tool.
years of work to pay for a year's tuition and fees
Hover over the chart to switch between years.
Click the chart to switch between years.
Range of national flagship tuitions
Methodology: The average tuition and fees figures were calculated from the Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (Ipeds) for 1998-2013 for full-time, first-time undergraduate students for the full academic year. The list of flagship universities is compiled by the College Board. The 2014 data are from College Navigator, and the 2015 data are estimates from college websites. Federal minimum wage was applied if the state did not have one or if state minimum wage was less than federal. In both instances, federal minimum wage overrides state minimum wage for most workers. All data are adjusted in July 2015 dollars using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers, not seasonally adjusted. We used the CPI in July of the year in which the academic year begins. These data do not account for state or federal income taxes or any financial aid that a student may receive. Yearly earnings are based on 50 weeks.
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