More than a quarter million college graduates are working at minimum wage jobs, learning that a degree from an institute of higher education doesn't always translate into a large paycheck.
According to
The Wall Street Journal, 70 percent more college graduates, or an estimated 284,000, are now working at minimum wage jobs than there were 10 years ago. That's below the 2010 peak of 327,000, but still an indication of an economy out of whack.
According to a study by the National Employment Law Project, three-fifths of all the jobs that were lost during the recent recession paid middle-income wages. Unfortunately, the jobs created during the ever-so-slow recovery are paying much lower wages, The Huffington Post reports.
The Center for College Affordability and Productivity reported earlier this year that nearly half of all 2010 college graduates are now working in jobs that don't require a bachelor's degree — and 38 percent of them have jobs that don't require a high school diploma.
The lower wages have employment experts wondering if too much public funding is being used to obtain college degrees that have little value in today's job market.
The lower-paying jobs are also making it difficult for students to pay off their college loans. Student-loan debts have climbed to new record numbers during the down economy, and nearly one in five American households now have at least one person struggling to pay back a student loan.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.