I want you all to imagine you’ve held an internship for about roughly 17 years. This internship isn’t the normal Hollywood depiction where you fetch coffee for your employers, but where you are actually taught to retain important information (at least until assessments are administered). This internship is unpaid of course, so why come? The first 13 years or everyone learns pretty much the same thing free of charge, but years 14-17 can cost roughly between $36,000 and $129,640 to engage in specialized intern education. Why would people want to complete this internship through year 17 you may be asking? In the end you are promised a solid, good paying job in the specific discipline of your choice. But get ready for a plot twist. What if all of the solid, good paying jobs that you were promised in your field are all filled up? What if you are left working in the same job that those who completed 13 years or less of the internship? What would you do then? That’s a pretty bizarre hypothetical scenario. What you may find even more bizarre, ladies and gentlemen, is this hypothetical scenario is based off of the very real scenario many students face in the American education system.

In order to correctly discuss the issue of college graduate millennials earning wages comparable to their peers who did not attend a college or university, we need to go over some generalized definitions so I can be as transparent as possible. For starters, contrary to the various definitions you may have heard, when I say millennials I am referring to adults between the ages of 18 and 34 as of 2015. When I refer to the low wages, I am referring to the minimum wage of the United States as of July 2015 (around $7.25 an per hour)

The growing inability for college graduates to get decent jobs is a problem that needs to be acknowledged and discussed if any change is expected to occur. The excessive amounts of college loans students take out is difficult to pay back in many cases with low paying jobs, and many college graduates not being able to get jobs in their fields starts to raise a question to the real value of an American college education in this present day and age.

The incentive to taking on college loans for students in the United States is the preconceived notion they will be able to pay these loans off once they get their diplomas. However, 260,000 graduates were in minimum wage jobs in 2014 alone. 23% of workers employed in low wage jobs hold at least a bachelor’s degree or higher. Almost 1/4^th of Americans earning minimum wage are degree holders. These minimum wage degree holders aren’t just in majors that are considered low-earning such as art or history either. STEM majors such as engineers and physicists are also finding themselves without jobs. Think about it; people who don’t have student loans to pay off are struggling to support their families. How are people making that same minimum wage supposed to support themselves, their families, and Sallie Mae? If the outcome of getting a good paying job after college is growing smaller and smaller, then the appeal of college seems to dwindle. Sure, furthering one’s own growth through education is great, but at the end of the day intellectual growth alone does not pay bills. That growth must be accompanied by a paycheck.

Now, it can be argued that there is nothing wrong with the way the American education system is currently set up. One extremely valid counter claim is that college degree holders earn more on average than high school graduates or dropouts. Studies have shown that in 2013, college graduates made about $17,500 more than high school graduates. W2’s don’t lie; at first glance, college seems like a valuable investment. However, even if a person makes $17,500 more a year from earning a college degree, you must weigh what is being given up for that degree. First of all, 4 years of salary is sacrificed in many cases to commit to studies. Next, the salary of a minimum wage worker is about $15,000 before taxes. It’s great if a person makes 17,000 more than that because of a college degree, but that amount does not take into account the student loans that person may have to pay back. Furthermore, people could argue that scholarships are available for people to earn so they don’t have to rely on solely themselves to finance their education. But it can also be argued that many people who take loans out get partial scholarships, and still have to take loans out for school. If you’ve ever tried applying for a scholarship online or even at your school, you understand just how competitive they are, and what little chance you have of actually being awarded that money. The inadequacy can be found in the education system itself, not in the people being hurt by it.

In closing, millennials are finding less and less of an incentive to complete college due to the low prospects. We have some of the best universities in the world, yet students are growing scared of attending due to the fact that they may not get any advantage in the workplace. Is the solution going to be an easy one? No. But, it is one that is worth working towards. College grads should feel as though the money and extra time is a worthwhile investment, and should have something more to show for it than a name tag from the local McDonald’s. We have to come together and work on a plan that will enable college grads to finally practice everything they’ve learned up to this point; they’re ready to show off what they can do, and we should be more equipped to let them.