By Oliver Wilson, Guest Writer
[Editor’s note: Open letters published in the Bi-College News do not reflect the views of the publication, its staff, or its editorial board. This letter represent only the views of the author. The Bi-Co News continues to strive to reflect the perspectives and experiences of all students across the Consortium.]
At this year’s fall plenary, Haverford students voted almost unanimously in favor of a resolution asking to raise the minimum wage for student workers. As the writer of this resolution, I want to elaborate on why this is necessary and share my thoughts on what we can do as students (both at Bryn Mawr and Haverford) to make it happen.
Currently, the student minimum wage at Haverford is only $10.50 per hour. This wage has not been raised in almost three years, and is well below wages at Bryn Mawr, which newly range from $13 to $15.50 per hour, and Swarthmore, which is currently at $14.75. The past three years have also seen very high inflation, which means this wage has effectively declined by almost 15%. The college acknowledges this effect, because it has recently raised tuition, citing inflation as the reason, but has not put any of this increased revenue towards increasing student wages. Beyond this, it is not hard to find jobs in Haverford’s community that pay $15 per hour or more, or even $30 an hour or more for some tutoring jobs.
Many Haverford students take advantage of this fact and have jobs at Bryn Mawr (one student I talked to is a TA at BMC) or off-campus. However, access to these opportunities is uneven; it is far easier to have an off-campus job if you have a car, a flexible schedule, and/or better internet access than other students. Additionally, if Haverford students are forced to seek jobs off-campus, Bryn Mawr students and other members of the surrounding community miss out on job opportunities.
Haverford has an obligation to raise its wage to a figure that is competitive with our peer institutions and nearby areas.
Beyond this comparative aspect, Haverford should raise the student wage because of the effect that low wages have on student workers. As one would expect, student workers are more often on federal work study (and therefore more often from lower-income backgrounds) than the median student and are also disproportionately students of color. Many student workers send money home to support their families or are financially independent from their families and have to pay for health insurance, cell phone plans, and all their other expenses. Queer and/or disabled students are especially affected by healthcare costs and may be less able to rely on their families for financial support.
Haverford and Bryn Mawr are also incredibly academically rigorous institutions, and the time and energy spent working is often at the expense of time and energy for coursework and learning. While student workers would still have to work, higher wages would allow them to have to work less, leaving us more time for classes, schoolwork and caring for their physical and mental well-being. While Haverford does have fairly substantial financial aid, which 49% of the student body benefits from, it is not enough to simply bring lower-income students to the college and leave them without resources. The college must also proactively support them while they are here.
One of the best ways to do this would be paying a competitive wage to those who need it to deal with the financial stresses of being a low-income student. Haverford (and Bryn Mawr) can’t solve all the systemic causes of poverty and inequality, or even pay student workers enough to fully compensate them for the sacrifices they make, but they can alleviate some of their effects for the people in our community and pay students (along with staff) a little closer to what they deserve.
It is a matter of moral necessity that Haverford raise the student wage, and soon. In the resolution, I proposed raising the minimum wage to $14 an hour by the beginning of the next academic year, and to $15 and $16 per hour the following two years. A task force composed of both students and staff has now been created, and its primary goal will be to create a budget proposal about the minimum wage to be reviewed for next year’s budget. While this will hopefully result in the necessary change, it will only be a temporary solution.
Moving forward, if we are unable to achieve a wage increase through official channels (the task force’s recommendation will be reviewed by senior staff and then the Board of Managers at Haverford), we will still have some options available to us. In the fight for higher wages (and other important issues), I think we can look to our fellow students and staff at Swarthmore, where the Solidarity at Swarthmore group has secured minimum wage increases, and where RAs have recently begun the process of unionizing. We can also remember the 2020 Strike for Racial Justice at Haverford (which had a great deal of support from Bryn Mawr students as well, with their own strike occurring in tandem) as a reminder that it is within our power as students to enact change, regardless of the stance of our colleges’ administrations.
Our institutions cannot function without student workers, so why are they paid so poorly?
