As a millennial, the idea of paying your way through college on $3.05/hr is mind blowing
Clearly the parent post was contemplating making $3.05 an hour in terms of today’s cost of living, just as I might contemplate how crazy it sounds to pay 5¢ a gallon for gas.
> A credit hour in 1979 at MSU was 24.50, adjusted for inflation that is 79.23 in today dollars. One credit hour today costs 428.75.
That's about 1600 hours at $15.60, or 40 x 40-hour weeks. So you need to work most of a year to pay the tuition for a year. And this doesn't account for your living expenses, taxes etc.
Here's an infographic that does a more detailed comparison: https://college-education.procon.org/view.resource.php?resou...
It was close to $400 a quarter near the end.
Nowadays, I imagine it would be more like 1/10 or less.
Cost for the courses and parking etc. for 1 semester was $152.50 . I guess the student had to buy some books also - so say, even $100 in books would take it to $252.50 ?
And 1975 minimum wage was $2.10/hour. So ~ 120 hours of labor (1 month) was enough to cover tuition and books.