Paying your way through college is a fantasy for most students, but that might change if Gov. Tom Wolf can convince lawmakers to increase the minimum wage.

The current minimum wage is $7.25, and if a student can work 40 hours a week, he or she can earn $290 a week before taxes. At that rate, rent, food and other living expenses can be covered, plus enough money left over to put toward books and tuition.

But working 40 hours a week is not realistic for most students. If you take five classes a week, study regularly and are involved in a club or sport you can easily use up 30 or 40 hours of time a week. To add even 20 hours of work on top of a full class schedule can be challenging.

No one should fool themselves into thinking they work at a minimum wage job and expect to put a serious dent into the four-figure tuition bill. There is a reason why the dean’s office makes you fill out a form to take seven or more classes in one semester. There is not enough time in the day to be a good student, make money and maintain a healthy social and personal life.

It is always a trade-off.

You can choose to work more and be thrifty to keep the student debt from piling up, but then you add more stress to your life and have less time to focus on the actual reason you are at college — to learn. If you do not work you can have a more enriched and fulfilling college experience, but will graduate with a mountain of debt.

The moral of the story is you can’t win if you are a student.

But maybe that will change soon. Wolf’s 2017-18 state budget proposal is calling for the minimum wage to be increased to $12 an hour, according to PennLive. The increase would be the first in eight years.

From 2007 to 2009 the federal minimum wage increased twice, rising from $5.85 to $7.25 and then it remained stagnant. So why make the dramatic jump to $12 per hour? That is more than enough to keep up with inflation from 2009. Having workers earn more money and spend more money means the state could collect increased revenue from income and sales taxes.

Despite some obvious benefits, there are serious issues with raising the minimum wage — especially for students. If a business has to dish out more money on pay day it needs to find a way to cut costs or generate more revenue. In other words, employers may lay off workers or raise prices on their goods or services.

What is to say a university wouldn’t respond the same way? If Shippensburg University’s food service provider, Chartwells, can’t make ends meet with a new minimum wage maybe it won’t hire as many students. Or maybe something worse will happen — student meal plans will be significantly more expensive.

The minimum wage increase could impact academic and recreation departments, pushing colleges and universities to raise tuition to compensate for the new expense. Sometimes student workers are treated with an exception to standard minimum wage rules. The legislature could decide to allow universities to pay student workers less than the minimum wage.

It’s a double-edged sword. If students get more money they subsequently could end up spending it on higher tuition and food bills.

But before any of that happens Wolf needs to wrangle his proposal through the legislature. Students can only hope that paychecks will go up, but not their bills. Maybe with the right cooperation and planning the fantasy of paying your way through college could become a reality.

Share