Is a pay cut based on "level of education" legal?

Legally, you probably can’t do anything. California is a at-will state and they can pretty much fire you for anything short of the boss grabbing your ass.

But to me this doesn’t sound horrible. If they are paying for a night class I would be all over it. But if you are expected to go full time that could be horrible. How many credits per term is the minimum?

They will pay tuition? That is a great perk, very few companies still do it. I’ve never heard of pay being cut like that, but I think it is legal. California does have a lot of laws that favor the employee so it might be worth calling the state labor something or other to ask the question. If you google labor laws for California there should be a contact number.

What a way to deincentivize employees.

By creating this situation after employed after you agreed to a certain amount of money upon hiring and I assume you are doing the same tasks you will be doing with a bachlor’s there is sort of a violation in place.

Though it probably is legal it screams to me of bad management.

On the other hand nothing wrong with getting the bachelor’s on their dime. Then finding another job and giving them the metaphorical finger.

Probably best not to completely burn bridges or at least get a decent reference. I know legally it is safer to just give the yes we employed them yes or no they are eligible for rehire, but I know for a fact that this is not all that is passed along. Probably depends on the company and the reference giver.

As long as they pay minimum wage they can do it.

I’ve seen RNs lose their jobs completely for not going back to school to get their BSN, so I’m sure there probably isn’t much you can do about a pay cut being in an at will state. Employers in at will states can do things like this because of the at will status.

If you’re not doing anything else, a 40-hour work week leaves plenty of time for evening classes.
It sucks that they’re doing this, but you are currently looking Opportunity in the face, in between knocks on your door. Go, pick an expensive Bachelor’s program that you can do, before Opportunity next raps her knuckles in your face. And unlike other benefits, this one will carry over to the next job.

I wonder if this could be looked at another way: for example, that everyone has to take a pay cut (as some employers have had to do in order to stay in business), but there’s an exception—or a raise—for those who go for the degree.

I’m not saying your employer is right or wrong, legally, because I don’t know. I’m just suggesting that the same situation might be viewed in more than one way, and your perspective might change your feeling about it.

These days I’ve seen people make a number of adjustments that might not be optimal but that let them keep their jobs.

I’d also give some thought to how much you might have to pay if you funded your own education—and how that sum compares with the pay reduction. This could be the bargain of a lifetime.