The College Troubles

This report got a fair bit of attention on Twitter, for obvious reasons:

In data compiled for a coming report, the Economic Policy Institute, a center-left think tank in Washington, found that the average inflation-adjusted hourly wage for male college graduates aged 23 to 29 dropped 11% over the past decade to $21.68 in 2011. For female college graduates of the same age, the average wage is down 7.6% to $18.80.

There are a few salient points here. One: how much of the skills-based critique of why there’s so many labor troubles can be true when young college graduates—the group that should be most competitive in the marketplace—are suffering so with their paychecks?

Two: it’s also striking that the gender pay gap remains so large. Again, we have a case where these should be the most skilled of the entire workforce, and yet the pay gap persists. That’s highly unfortunate.