The Washington Post - 18.09.2019

A20 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 , 2019

philosophy or biology class you

took in college.

Far too often, we are

devaluing work experience in

favor of a degree that, for many,

doesn’t adequately prepare them

for a job anyway.

In the Pew report, 57 percent

of Americans said the higher-

education system in the United

States fails to provide students

with good value for the money

they and their families spend.

Other Pew research found

that one-third of Americans who

lack a four-year college degree

report that they didn’t apply for

a job they felt they were

qualified for because the

position required a bachelor’s

degree.

Obtaining a diploma doesn’t

alone make you more qualified.

With the cost of college

crippling so many borrowers, it’s

time to concede that, for many

jobs in America, experience

should matter just as much as a

college degree.

Readers may write to Michelle

Singletary at The Washington Post,

1301 K St. NW, Washington, D.C.

20071 or michelle.singletary@

washpost.com. To read previous

Color of Money columns, go to

wapo.st/michelle-singletary.

resource needs of the company.

This means you’re doing

everything necessary to keep

employers and employees sane.

That said, does the position

require a B.A.? Maybe. Maybe

not.”

Let’s talk about the maybe

not.

A 2017 joint report by Harvard

Business School, Accenture and

Grads of Life discussed the costs

of degree inflation for families

and businesses. Employers are

more often using automated

tools that may weed out good job

candidates simply because they

don’t have a college degree.

“The rising demand for a four-

year college degree for jobs that

previously did not require one is

a substantive and widespread

phenomenon that is making the

U.S. labor market more

inefficient,” the report said.

“Companies that insist only on a

college degree deny themselves

the untapped potential of eager

to work young adults as well as

experienced, older workers as

pools of affordable talent.”

Of course, there are jobs

where an advanced degree and

specific training are necessary.

But think about how you learned

to do your job. Experience may

have mattered more than the

only are you going to be in

charge of all of the minor clerical

duties, but you’ll be working

with higher-up executives and

taking care of the human

“A t a lot of smaller companies,

the administrative assistant job

is more like that of an office

manager or an executive

assistant,” the reader wrote. “Not

forcing people to go into debt

when perhaps they don’t need

to.

Increasingly, employers —

private and public — are

screening out experienced job

applicants just because they

don’t have a college degree.

Researchers call this “degree

inflation.”

During a recent online

discussion with readers, this

topic came up.

A leading cause of high

student loans is “requiring a

bachelor’s degree for jobs that

really don’t require one,” a

reader wrote.

“For example, almost all of the

new administrative assistants at

my job have a B.A. You really

don’t need one to answer

phones, coordinate schedules

and file papers. But because

most people now require it, the

folks who would do well with

those jobs without a degree have

to spend the money to get a

degree to get the job. It is so

maddening.”

Now, before you dash off an

email arguing that many

administrative assistants have a

great deal of responsibility that

might require a degree, read the

following from another online-

chat participant.

Whenever I talk
to students and
parents who have
taken on college
debt that will
choke their
budget for
decades, they say
this: College is an
investment.
But is it,
though?
In their defense, they’ve heard
over and over again that the debt
won’t matter because the degree
is going to pay off with a higher-
paying job.
When compared with people
who have a high school diploma,
graduates of four-year colleges
believe they earn, on average,
$20,000 more each year as a
result of their degree, according
to a 2011 report from the Pew
Research Center. Their estimate
closely matches census data, Pew
said.
Ye t a degree doesn’t always
pay off. In fact, some folks don’t
out-earn high school graduates,
and they end up dragging
staggering amounts of debt all
the way into retirement.
This is why the debate about
the $1.6 trillion in outstanding
student loans should include
discussion about a trend that is

With the high cost of college, experience should matter as much as a degree

Michelle

Singletary

THE COLOR

OF MONEY

THE MARKETS

6 Monitor your investments at washingtonpost.com/markets Data and graphics by

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Commercial Svcs & Suppl 11 .. 44

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Automobiles 11 .. 33

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Silver 18.14 0.

Sugar 12.10 -1.

Soybean 8.94 -0.

Wheat 4.84 -0.

Corn 3.68 -1.

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Bank Prime

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Coffee (COFF.L) -3.
Copper(COPA.L) -0.
Corn (CORN.L) -1.
Cotton (COTN.L) -2.
Crude Oil (CRUD.L) -2.
Gasoline (UGAS.L) -2.
Gold (BULL.L) 0.
NaturalGas (NGAS.L) 0.
Silver (SLVR.L) 0.

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ApogeeEnterprises 45.92 11.

UnitedNatural Foods 13.12 5.

SolarEdge Tech 83.06 4.

MSCI Inc 240.15 4.

InnovativeIndstrProp94.93 4.

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MeritMedicalSystems 29.91 4.

Ball Corp 75.00 3.

eHealthInc 80.33 3.

First Solar Inc 65.82 3.

CME Group Inc 214.73 3.

Hawkins Inc 44.46 3.

Hibbett Sports Inc19.67 3.

Ulta Beauty Inc 233.85 3.

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Nasdaq Inc 102.73 3.

Invacare Corp 7.36 3.

Crown Castle Intl 142.48 3.

Royal Gold Inc 125.62 3.

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SM Energy Co 10.37 -18.

Barnes & Noble Edu 3.31 -17.

WhitingPetroleum 9.42 -16.

Oasis Petroleum Inc4.03 -16.

QEP Resources Inc 4.21 -15.

Chesapeake Energy 1.77 -14.

Superior En Services 0.35 -11.

Nautilus Inc 1.42 -11.

Denbury Resources 1.39 -10.

Oil States Intl 14.79 -10.

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Patterson-UTI Energy9.86 -10.

Callon Petroleum Co 4.78 -10.

Mallinckrodt PLC 2.71 -10.

Matador Resources Co 17.11 -9.

LaredoPetroleum Inc 2.76 -9.

Nordstrom Inc 32.10 -9.

BostonBeer Co Inc 352.00 -9.

LSC Communications 1.37 -9.

US Silica Inc11.43 -9.

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Mexico $

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S&P/ASX 200 INDEX6695.25 0.

CSI 300 INDEX 3891.22 -1.

HANG SENG INDEX26790.24 -1.

NIKKEI 2252 2001.32 0.

EEuurrooppee -- 1188 .. 88 %% ++ 1188 .. 88 %%

STXE 600 (EUR) Pr 389.33 -0.

CAC 40INDEX5615.51 0.

DAX INDEX 12372.61 -0.

FTSE 100 INDEX 7320.40 0.

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AmerExpCo 119.0 51 .2 -2.
Apple Inc 220.7 00 .4 13.
Boeing 384.2 01 .4 8.
Caterpillr 132.17-0.7 3.
Chevron 123.89-0.2 2.
Cisco Sys 49.41 -1.1 -10.
Coca-Cola 54.24 0.5 6.
Dow Inc 48.00 -2.1 -2.
ExxonMobil 73.17 -0.8 -2.
Gldman Schs 215.91-0.6 13.
Home Depot 230.21-0.3 11.
IBM 142.20-0.2 5.
Intel Corp 51.95 -0.5 12.
J&J 129.6 70 .1 -7.

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McDonald's 209.8 51 .2 3.

Merck & Co 82.51 0.6 -0.

Microsoft 137.39 0.8 3.

NIKE Inc 87.59 0.4 6.

Pfizer Inc 36.50 -0.9 -14.

Prcter& Gmbl 121.1 61 .2 9.

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Interbank Offered Rate. Consumer rates are from Bankrate. All figures as of

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PEDRO FERNANDES/GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

Increasingly, employers are screening out people without degrees.

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