On Oct. 28, the Augustana College Board of Trustees voted to continue increasing student employment pay by 25 cents (or $0.25) each year. The change raises the pay rate for positions previously paid $10.25 per hour to $10.50, and for positions previously paid $11.50 per hour to $11.75.
Illinois’ current minimum wage for employees 18 and older is $15.00, and, in line with the college’s payroll plans, students would not receive that amount for another 13 years.
According to a campus-wide email sent to the student body on Nov. 6 by Kirk Anderson, chief financial officer and vice president for finance and administration, and Mindy Zumdome, director of human resources, the adjustment aligns student wages with the annual compensation increase given to college employees. The gradual increases began last October as part of an effort to standardize student worker compensation.
Junior Emily Lang is a part of the Intramural staff at the PepsiCo Recreation Center. As a student employee, Lang is responsible for PepsiCo and intramural staff payroll, entering intramural game results and helping maintain the building. When Lang got the email announcing the pay raise, she said that she thought it was “ridiculous” and that the raise would not make a difference to her work.
“I feel like it’s already a low pay rate, where the 25 cents doesn’t make that much of a difference,” Lang said. “I do a lot of work for only $11.25 … I feel like it doesn’t reflect how much work I do.”
Anderson said the small raise is due to planning ahead for the future. Anderson said raising the wage to $15 an hour would force the college to eliminate student positions, reducing opportunities for the students who work on campus each week.
Anderson said students love the idea of working on campus to earn some extra money. He understands that this money won’t pay for tuition, but by moving the pay to $15, Augustana would have to shrink the labor pool.
“When [Augustana does] budgeting and planning, it’s easier to do shorter, incremental changes than it would be for just one big change,” Anderson said. “If we move it to $15, we have to shrink our labor pool.”
Junior Adele Eberhardt works in the college’s Office of Student Life (OSL). Eberhardt serves as the out-of-state student program coordinator and holds a role on the comedy committee at the Student Life Programming Board, a subcommittee within the OSL. Along with her roles in the OSL, she works at PepsiCo, where she cleans, greets guests and does laundry.
“There are things in the OSL that I’m doing that I’m like, ‘Okay, maybe this [wage] is not enough,’” said Eberhardt. “It’s frustrating, only making $10.50. It’s not sustainable … I can’t live on that at all.”
Eberhardt said that she likes having an on-campus job because of the flexibility and convenience it provides. However, she said her paychecks are not enough to cover weekly expenses.
The increase in student wages raises concerns about the fairness across campus jobs among students, she said. Eberhardt said she makes the same amount of money for both jobs, but that one requires more work than the other.
“I think the raise is fine for jobs where you can just sit and do homework, but for the things I do in OSL, it’s not enough,” Eberhardt said.
Anderson said he understands concerns students might have about wages, but hopes they recognize the reasoning behind the decision. He said the college has to find a balance between wage expectations and the reality of its student employment budget.
“Some may not agree with it still, but I think at least they know our perspective and where we’re coming from,” Anderson said.
