Opinion: Is a STEM career the only way to earn a living wage? (2024)

During a time when most businesses have a ‘Help Wanted’ sign in the window, the question is no longer ‘will I find a job?’ but ‘will I earn a living wage?’

On Jan. 18 I joined a zoom call with three Kalamazoo Public Library aides; all were members of a bargaining team to negotiate better wages with their employer. They appeared exasperated by their treatment and motivated to charge head-on into this lengthy process. Many of my questions were met with sighs, as if to say, “you don’t even know the half of it.”

As they told me about how they would change these part-time positions to offer a living wage, one member, Jon Jerow, vented his frustrations.

“These jobs are viewed, ‘not professional,’ because they aren’t in the stem fields,” Jerow said. “You would not get away with this nonsense at engineering firms. You would not get away with this nonsense if these jobs at this level were in a field that was valued; but because we are library aides… it's seen as a passion job… so we are not paid as if it were real work.”

Jerow claims that only jobs in STEM, like engineering, offer a fair wage, and he may have a point.

According to Western Michigan University’s Post Graduation Activity Report, students that graduated in 2020-21 show vast differences in salary post graduation depending on their area of study. Undergraduate students with a degree from the College of Arts and Sciences earned $35,000-$40,000 on average, while students graduating from the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences earned $60,000-$65,000 right out of college. Students in the arts earned even less, at $30,000-$35,000 on average.

During a time when most businesses have a ‘Help Wanted’ sign in the window, the question is no longer ‘will I find a job?’ but ‘will I earn a living wage?’ When deciding what career path to pursue, many students are driven towards STEM careers, with a guaranteed decent wage being the deciding factor.

The first published use of the acronym STEM was by Rep. Vernon Ehlers, a Republican from Michigan, and Rep. Mark Udall, a Democrat from Colorado. In 2005, they formed the Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) caucus in Congress.

The Obama administration brought constant national attention to STEM by launching numerous campaigns to promote STEM education in K-12: Educate to Innovate, 2009; Change the Equation, 2010; Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), 2015; and Computer Science for All, 2016.

The Committee on STEM Education (CoSTEM) was also established in 2011 to make a cohesive national strategy to increase the impact of federal investments in STEM education.

Unsurprisingly, the national attention caused many more students to gravitate towards STEM careers. The number of bachelor degrees received in engineering and computer sciences increased 37 percent and 56 percent respectively, between 2012-2018. Meanwhile, the number of degrees earned in foreign languages, literature and linguistics decreased 22 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Among those that gravitated towards a STEM field, was Joanna Croes.

Croes, a systems engineer at Sandalwood Engineering & Ergonomics, is happy with her career. Croes was always good at math and loved science from a young age, but she is under no illusions as to what motivated her career choices.

“I knew I had to go into something that made money, because I didn’t have a safety net to fall back on,” Croes told me over the phone.

Croes’ family did not have a lot of money, and her parents were always on the verge of losing the house. Her top priority was having a career that would allow her to pay off her student loans, support her future family, and take care of her parents.

To check all of these boxes, Croes could not choose a career in the arts, even though that is where her passion lies.

“If money hadn’t been a factor… I do love math and science, but I also love the arts, and I might have gone into music,” Croes said.

“As much as I would like to say, ‘do what makes you happy,’ at the end of the day you do have to be able to support yourself." - Lindsey Gubow

Her story is similar to Chemical Engineer Lindsey Gubow, who recently started a job at General Motors. Gubow comes from a family of engineers, and her parents offered to help Gubow pay for college if she went into a career that would provide financial security. However, she says she would have studied music in college if money wasn’t a factor. Luckily, Gubow always loved math and science, and she doesn’t regret any of her career choices.

“As much as I would like to say, ‘do what makes you happy,’ at the end of the day you do have to be able to support yourself,” Gubow said.

This sentiment is shared by Carley Dziewicki, a software engineer in Grand Rapids. She enjoys aspects of what she does, but admits that baking is her real passion and would love to work at a bakery or go to culinary school.

A career in the arts, or in baking, is very unlikely to offer the same financial security as a job in STEM.

The average musician salary in Michigan is just $32,074 annually, or $15.42 an hour, according to ZipRecruiter. Bakers earn even less at $25,887 annually, or $12.45 an hour.

I used the MIT: Living Wage Calculator to understand what it would mean to support yourself with the jobs above.

A single adult would need to make at least $13.63 ($27,784 annually before taxes) in Michigan in order to support themselves, according to the Living Wage Calculator. That number is only a little higher than the living wage for Kalamazoo: $13.36. Based on this number, the average baker could not be financially independent with just one income.

I am skeptical that $13.63 is a realistic estimate of what a single adult would need to support themselves. When looking through the data, I saw that the calculator budgeted $6,949 for housing annually: $579 a month. Finding housing at that price is difficult, to say the least. Average fair market rent prices for a one bedroom is $647 in Michigan, and $705 in Kalamazoo.

Keep in mind that all the data above is for single adults without kids; the living wage estimate goes up significantly if kids are added into the equation.

“I know that with being a composer, it's unlikely that I'll be super rich, and I know that I'll need other work to properly support myself; but that doesn't stop me” - Tré Bryant

With disheartening numbers like that, It is not surprising that Croes, Gurbow, and Dziewicki choose STEM careers rather than risking financial security in order to support themselves with their passions. Still, these numbers do not deter everyone. When I asked Tré Bryant, composition student at WMU, if he ever considered a career outside of music, his answer was a loud and resounding no.

“I know that with being a composer, it's unlikely that I'll be super rich, and I know that I'll need other work to properly support myself; but that doesn't stop me,” Bryant said.

Macey Nesti, photographer and owner of Macey C Photography, was also not deterred by the low wage.

“I adore being in the field I am in,” Nesti said. “It brings me such joy and it is much more fulfilling to be thriving in that aspect right now than financially.”

But why do STEM jobs, like engineering, earn so much more on average than non-STEM jobs? One common explanation is that engineering jobs are in high demand. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projected that 140,000 new engineering jobs would be created between 2016-2026.

Many point to the demand for technical skills as the reason why these careers earn so much more than non-STEM careers. However, that cannot be the whole reason; 920,500 new jobs were projected to be added from 2020 to 2030 in education, training, and library occupations, yet the average teacher in Michigan makes around $48,758, and library aids at KPL are fighting to earn a living wage.

Another theory is that our society doesn’t value non-STEM jobs as they do STEM jobs, which accounts for the difference in pay.

"That’s the new story, is that we should only do that. We should have a country of engineers… There is no space for anybody else.” - Dr. VincentLyon-Callo

I spoke with Vincent Lyon-Callo, professor at Western Michigan University who works primarily on poverty and class in the United States. From society’s point of view, going into STEM has become the ‘responsible’ thing to do, Lyon-Callo said.

“That’s the new story, is that we should only do that,” Lyon-Callo said. “We should have a country of engineers… There is no space for anybody else.”

WMU Graduate Amanda Stout, felt pressure to go into STEM, and started her college experience majoring in medical science, despite reservations. She later decided that she had to go into something creative, and double majored in both visual and musical arts. She now supports herself working in arts administration, and performs/creates music as a side-hustle.

“(I started) that path because it validated me feeling smart, or doing a respected field. Something I could talk out loud and everyone would immediately understand and respect my job,” Stout said.

Aerospace Engineer Jacob Norman agrees that the arts are not widely respected as a career in this society.

“There's a similar level of work required to qualify for the positions, but the pay for each one is based on how important society deems them,” Norman said. “Arts and entertainment is seen as a luxury and not as practical as a STEM position, and so most people tend to see it as a ‘lesser’ role.”

It’s sad to think that our society is becoming a place where only doctors and engineers are able to thrive, while non-STEM careers like musicians, teachers and library aides are left to struggle.

Norman was contemplating double majoring in aerospace engineering and cello performance at WMU, but ultimately decided it made more sense to pursue engineering and continue music as a hobby.

Croes also still pursues her music passion as a hobby. She has a Youtube channel where she posts singing videos, including some original songs. Over the phone, she told me excitedly about a nice new microphone that she was able to purchase for her music, thanks to an engineer’s income.