For lower income families, 'playing hookie' is usually called 'truancy' (which when I think about it, isn't such a nice-sounding term), and usually results in a lack of a college education altogether, leading to very very low (in comparison) paying hourly (and possibly menial) jobs.

I was astounded at the amount that some companies pay interns (I don't mean google, or any of the companies on the the extremes) -- I had some jobs before college, and some entire families subsisted on similar incomes. What did I do with the money that whole families earned (I was an intern at some point)? Buy pizza and beer.