UW-Madison students calling for a living wage ($10.23) for student workers have caused enough ruckus on their campus to inspire a story in today’s Marquette Tribune. “Working for small change” offered several Marquette student voices in favor of a wage hike:
Ashley Hall, a freshman in the College of Engineering, will also make $6.50 an hour at her job as a residence hall desk receptionist next year. Hall said she is less than pleased with her hourly wage, and feels DRs should make more because they keep the building secure.
Hall also works on campus as a Rec Plex lifeguard where she earns $7.50 an hour, a wage she considers low because of the huge responsibility she undertakes when watching the pool.
…
Though this raise policy is not universal across campus, Liz Youakim, a Phone-a-thon employee and sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, said she is eligible for a raise each semester. Youakim started at $6.50 an hour two semesters ago and now makes $6.70.
“I think it could be higher for the work we are doing,” she said. “We are calling on behalf of the Annual Fund at Marquette, which covers 38 percent of our tuition, so we’re raising money to help keep tuition increases to a minimum.”
These students illustrate exactly where most people campaigning for better wages absolutely miss the mark. It’s not that what they do is not important. It’s that it’s not important that they do it.
It’s important to protect McCormick Hall. Lord knows we need people to call donors to subsidize our tuition. It’s even important to politely hang up on everyone who calls about Dominic James going pro (yours truly does this all day at the Al McGuire Center). There’s nothing important about having me do this, however. Anyone able to read this post could probably pick up the phones and do it instead of me next week.
People will whine and say that we need a living wage — for Madison students, for Marquette students, for Wal-mart employees — but the fact is that most people would do better by finding something to do where it matters that they are the ones doing it.
Obviously this is easier said than done. But setting unreasonable wage floors isn’t the solution. It makes Wal-mart move jobs out of Chicago and forces them to charge the same lower-class people more for the same products. It increases income for people who hold jobs, but increases poverty for those who can no longer get work because of position cuts.
In the case of Madison, I hope this is what happens. I challenge the school to pay the outrageous $10.23 an hour. I also challenge them to keep their budget for student employees the same. Finally, I challenge the students whose jobs are no longer in the budget to go out and try to find a job that pays them more. If they can do this, they should have been there in the first place.
Lastly, I’d like to note that while I think living wage is a boatload of rhetoric that causes inefficiency and waste, the Badgers are really making a mockery out of it. I’m baffled as to why they complain about difficulty paying their tuition (no one puts them in school, no one keeps them from taking out loans, no one makes them study in fields with no job market). I’m baffled as to why they would support this measure, when it is more than likely that their wage increases will simply come out of their own pockets (it’s supposed to be funded by student segregated fees).
But most of all, I’m baffled as to why on earth they think they deserve it. The $10.23 figure is based on a full-time worker supporting a family of four. Nearly none of them have this responsibility.
And most of them are doing things that, while important to be done, will be done just as well by someone else in four years from now.
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Keep in mind many of those jobs exist because they receive money in the form of financial aid from the Department of Education for “work-study” jobs. They would go away in an instant if the Feds decided to cut off that kind “work-study” as a form of financial aid.
But this should come as no surprise. This is the same campus that thinks it should force Adidas into “fair labor” standards in third world countries just because they are UW.
You mean someone else could do their homework in the booth out behind the College of Communications just as well as the next guy? Ouch, that hurts.
I can’t believe 900 some students voted against it, however, I’m sure their capitalist ideals will be chased away from Madison by a mob of red. Unfortunately I think we will be footing the bill through taxes so that our badgers have a little more cash to get wasted and riot every Halloween.
Question — do you agree that it’s unfair that Rec Sports lifeguards and Building Supervisors who are trained on CPR, AED and First Aid and have to be the first responders to emergency situations (and we’ve all had one) make less than people who work for the AMU doing things like answering phones and making copies? Shouldn’t the fact that we’re in charge of human life grant us the privilege of making more than someone who swipes you into the cafeteria?
Because the university doesn’t seem to think so.
I think that most of the time as a lifeguard you’re just sittng there waiting for a potential life to save and making easy money. But hey I’m glad you’re somewhat concerned about human life.
No, I don’t think it’s unfair at all. Reread the post.
Nobody in this world is paid on how important what they do is. If they were, we’d have less teachers campaigning for raises, more penniless football players…
Who knows, maybe even housewives would get a salary.
The situation is simple… If the wages go up to $10/hr. That means there will only be enough money to pay for 1 person which took 2 people before unless student fees or tuition were to be raised. Where does that get anyone??
The purpose of these jobs are to give extra spending cash while filling a few holes the normal paid university staff can’t cover— it shouldn’t be to support anyone’s life as they only provide a few hours a week to fit student schedules. Not all of them pay $6.50 either… some pay as high as $10 depending if its supervisor level or not.
If people are looking for a job that is suppose to be life supporting, than get a job in a factory or retail center which will pay $9-12/hr and provide the necessary hours. The debate here is ridiculous… the same logic can’t be applied as if it were a regular paid position because it just isn’t the same.
Great column so true, there are a few angry socialists ranting about this up here at UWEC as well. As somone who makes 6.50 an hour on campus I’ll be the first to say that I am about as replaceable in my job as a battery, I am just happy to have something. Great post Katie!
Wow!! Great column. I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who understands basic economics.
Hey Marquette – Be quiet and mind your own business. Regardless of what us UW students are paid, your inferior degree means you’ll still be working for us one day.
STFU.
Oh, that’s great. Did you just get back from a Sex Out Loud event? Hey, are you on your 5th or 6th year of undergrad this year?
“what us UW students are paid”
That’s UW-style grammer for you. Who will be working for whom?
Katie, the problem with your argument in the case of lifeguards is that it is very important who does it. One can answer telephones with no previous experience, but lifeguarding requires special certifications which very, very few people have and which must be renewed and updated. In fact, I’m surprised that Marquette is stiffing its lifeguards–at most of the colleges I know of, the lifeguards do receive higher wages. This is not because their job is more important than answering telephones (although it is, in my estimation) but rather because it is essentially a skilled trade.
Well, Judith, with one organization (MU, obviously) deciding what/who is important, things aren’t going to be decided as they would under market-oriented settings where the value of people’s skill sets to the rest of society are reflected in the price mechanism. The concern from mu socialist is tangentally related to this — in the real world, emergency responders are paid well because society values (and is willing and able to pay for) the ability to save a life. You won’t see this dynamic in a monopsonist (single demander) of labor, such as at MU.
I have yet to meet a well paid life guard… sorry. That pool you swim at must be filled with liquid gold. It all boils down to simple economics… these are student jobs not careers
Well paid? Hardly, SP3TER. Notice that the words “well paid” do not appear in my post (although it is common at municipal pools for lifeguards to make eight to ten dollars an hour). What I did say is that this is the fist time I have ever heard of a college that didn’t pay its lifegards slightly more than the rest of its student workers. Even most summer camps–and Lord knows you can’t make a career as a camp counselor–pay their lifeguards slightly more than their counselors.
The demand for “living wage” from the UW students is indeed outrageous. However, a slightly higher wage for lifeguards is economically sensible.