Work-Study: Conflict or Facilitation? Time Use Tradeoffs Among Employed Students

Abstract

Does paid employment during high school and college displace the time students spend in educational activities? Most enrolled college students in the United States (US) now work in paid jobs, almost half of whom work 25 or more hours per week (US Department of Education 2010). An economics-based approach to students’ time allocation suggests that students consider the tradeoffs involved with work versus study time in terms of current income and future earnings capacity, as well as their health consequences. There may be some complementarities, not just substitutability, between work and education time, regarding educational outcomes. Thus, it is an empirical question whether paid work time displaces time devoted toward education.