Educational Wage Gap Essay

The importance of a college education is heard of years before it is put to the test. High schools preach it, parent’s stress it, and everybody in between seems to have something to say about it. The wage differential is one of the important and seemingly growing reasons to get a college education, but where does this differential arise from?
McCall (2000) offers an explanation to possible causes for this wage gap. In the article McCall (2000) states, “rising earnings inequality is largely due to skill-biased technological change in which the demand for low-skill workers has fallen,” the assumption is that the higher education a worker attains the more skilled that worker will be considered to be (McCall, 2000, p. 234). Subsequently, it is the more skilled workers (higher educated workers) that are more likely to be hired and payed more.
Autor (2014) states “A technologically advanced economy requires a literate, numerate, and technically and scientifically trained workforce to develop ideas, manage complex organizations, deliver healthcare
I think many of the things that play into the educational wage gap is a concern of public policy. The main concern is the K-12 education system that is in place. The system is failing at sufficiently teaching students the things they need to know, making a student with only a high school education virtually useless in many job markets. The failure of the K-12 system leads to the increased need of a college level education and it is becoming increasingly expensive to get one. This limits the amount of people who are able to get a college education adding to the pool of lower educated people, earning lower wages. I think in order to fix this we need to reevaluate our K-12 education system. We need to find a new way to teach our young students useful, technological, life skills that allow them to prosper with or without a college