Brother, can you spare a dime?

Winter jackets have been shed, and spring is upon us. For seniors, the warm weather means graduation is nearing, and the unemployed among us are beginning to panic. We all begin our job search looking for our dream job, but as graduation looms and reality hits, we become less selective. Our expectations have shifted, and some of us have downsized our dreams.

A friend of mine was recently offered a prestigious full-time fellowship at a well-respected national magazine. The news was bittersweet, however. They would only pay him $8.25 an hour, which amounts to roughly $16,500 per year. I entered this information into ACCESS NYC, a New York City government website that identifies eligibility for more than 30 city, state, and federal human service benefit programs. Filling out the anonymous form as my friend, I answered questions: What other monthly expenses does he have? $900 for rent and $300 for food. Is he paying for health insurance? No, because he can stay on his parents’ policy. After 20 minutes’ worth of forms, I discovered that my friend would be likely be eligible for Section 8 housing assistance and various work assistance programs. He was near the borderline for cash benefits, food stamps, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Medicaid Excess Income Program. In other words, if he took this job, he would be poor.

Why would an employer create a position for college graduates that pays minimum wage? Why do they exploit the struggling economy and bad job market? Because they can. They know that if my friend is forced to turn down his offer because he can’t afford to make minimum wage, there are plenty of eager applicants who would be more than happy to take his spot.

Offering a recent college graduate a minimum-wage position in a major city with an astronomical cost of living requires that the individual be able to afford to take the job. It is doubtful that this publication and other employers using similar tactics expect that their employees will be on public assistance. It is more likely that they expect the employee will be partially supported by family or be able to live with parents. Clearly, this magazine is uninterested in hiring talent from all social strata.

This seems to be a relatively new phenomenon, sort of like a continuation of the unpaid internship culture that we have been forced to buy into, and a product of the Great Recession. We watched as members of the unlucky classes of 2008 and 2009 graduated into a grim job market and many were forced to move home or to take unpaid internship positions. Though there are clearly signs of economic turnaround, and the class of 2011 seems to be facing slightly better prospects, the Great Recession mentality has remained: A job is a job, and we should be so thankful to be employed that we won’t notice we are being exploited.

This drift toward lower starting salaries will have a severely negative impact on our generation. A study from the Yale School of Management discovered that graduating from college during a recession has serious long-term consequences. Graduates who enter the job market during a difficult economic period will earn consistently lower salaries throughout their lives than graduates who enter during boom years. In addition, the study found that over 17 years after college graduation, these groups have a $100,000 difference in earnings. In a recession, graduates are often forced to compromise and take jobs unrelated to their career goals. By the time they enter their field of choice, they are already behind.

In a recession, everyone hurts. Organizations and companies are forced to cut costs in order to stay afloat, but offering college graduates “prestigious” positions at minimum wage only gives affluent individuals with resources an additional leg up. While my friend is debating whether to take this position at $8.25 an hour, the publisher is a well known mega-millionaire, and top reporters are paid $350,000 a year. You would think they could afford to pay him a living wage.

Alexandra Katz is a Barnard College senior majoring in political science. Umm, Excuse Me runs alternate Thursdays.