Raising minimum wages decrease community college enrollment

A new paper shows a link between higher minimum wages and lower enrollment
Four-year college enrollment remains unchanged when minimum wages grow
Two-year degree completion iss not affected by wage growth

Updated: Aug 7, 2023 / 03:37 PM CDT

(NewsNation) — A new study suggests rising minimum wages are connected with a drop in community college enrollment but don’t impact four-year college attendance.

The National Bureau of Economics Research released a working paper looking at the impact of state increases to the minimum wage on college enrollment. Researchers found that after minimum wages were raised, enrollment in community colleges dropped by 2% in year one and the drop increased to 4% by year five. Enrollment in four-year colleges remained unchanged.

When data was broken down to only look at public colleges, the results remained the same as when examining data from both public and private institutions.

Researchers found that while community college enrollment dropped, there was no significant impact on the rate of degree completion for two-year students, with one exception. There was a small decrease in women completing AA degrees at community colleges following a minimum wage increase.

The paper did not attempt to examine what the long-term impacts of declining community college enrollment might be.