UChicago: Bad Bang for the $ ?

Pizzagirl
Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:17:05 +0000

They are trying to quantify the earning-potential difference a particular college makes. I don’t blame them for trying – it would be interesting to know the answer – but I suspect it would take mounds of data and a zillion simultaneous regressions even to begin to get an accurate answer.



Even leaving aside the employee (no entrepreneurs / independent business owners) factor, the underlying assumption is also that people manage their careers with an eye solely or mostly towards their paycheck.

I used to work for a Big Corporate Behemoth. When I was pregnant, I had an opportunity to move to another company with a larger paycheck, but benefits nowhere near as good. I didn’t make the move, which worked out well as I subsequently had a half-million dollar medical bill surrounding the birth of my kids, as well as substantial medical bills afterwards. “Maximizing my paycheck” would have been a very stupid move, since it would have ignored the very substantial medical benefits as well as the stock that I received as part of my compensation.

As well, especially after having children, people may choose to maximize other areas in their lives that aren’t the paycheck. Women in particular may choose to “step down” or to take jobs that enable them to be at home more or travel less or whatever. Certainly you can’t say that a person is “less successful” if he or she works hard for the first 10 years but then chooses something that prioritizes family and consequently stalls in pay. You can say that they make less money, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t doing exactly what they want to be doing, which is the whole point, I think. Making the most money just isn’t the end game, IMO.