When I was a kid, I worked as a laborer for a carpenter. I made minimum wage: four bucks an hour. After school and on weekends, and six days a week during the summer, digging ditches, hauling cinder blocks, and running to the lumberyard. And that was enough money, along with a small scholarship—which fortunately, required only mediocre grades-to pay for what was then a pretty pricey private college.
I couldn’t do that today—and not just because my back would hurt. The average private college costs four times what it did for me, yet the minimum wage has not even doubled. Even working full time for the federal minimum would pay only about one-third of the bill.
But that’s not just my hypothetical problem. Today, many adults—not just school-age kids—previously employed in…
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Inc. (Digital) - 1 Issue, May/June 2021