OSU student workers seek higher minimum wage
Dozens of Ohio State students gathered in frigid temperatures Friday for a protest behind the Ohio Union to demand the university raise the minimum wage on campus to $15 an hour for student workers to improve overall working conditions.
As a student assistant in the Ohio Union, Anthony Parker’s job varies shift to shift. Parker, a senior majoring in public policy, often works in the dining hall’s kitchen preparing orders for Grubhub drivers to pick up.
At a pay rate of $10.50 an hour, Parker earns less working for Ohio State than the delivery drivers picking up the food that he makes.
“The number one issue among students is wages,” Parker said at the protest. “The problem is that wages have remained low.”
Ohio State pays its student workers a range of base hourly wages. In line with the state raising its minimum wage 50 cents from $8.80 to $9.30 an hour on Jan. 1, the university raised wages for returning student workers by the same amount this year. Tipped employees earn $4.65 an hour. Most on-campus jobs pay anywhere between $9.30 to $13 an hour, Parker said.
Resident assistants make $150 every two weeks, about $4.45 an hour, but those students don’t have to pay for housing and have discounted meals.
University spokesman Ben Johnson said Ohio State employs more than 15,000 student employees across its six campuses.
“The university offers competitive salaries and benefits to retain and support our critical student employees, and we value their contributions to our campus life and land grant mission,” he said.
Parker said many student workers on campus are paid $10 an hour, which isn’t much compared to what they could make off campus.
“A lot of places are understaffed, and it’s easier to find close work off campus that pays more, like Target or Chipotle,”
he said.
A 2018 Georgetown University study found that nearly 70% of all college students in the U.S. work. But stalled talks over raising the federal minimum wage, combined with the increasing cost of higher education, means most college students aren’t getting the same bang for their buck like once did.
Sixty years ago, a college student who worked parttime during the school year and full-time during the summer at a minimum-wage job could pay for tuition, fees and most of their room and board at a typical public four-year university, according to the Urban Institute. Today, that same amount of work at minimum wage covers just 57% of college tuition and fees and 27% of room and board and other expenses.
Jacob Messman, a sophomore majoring in geography and African American & African studies, works the 1-5 a.m. shift at Drackett Tower’s front desk. He helps students who get locked out, answers residents’ questions and asks visitors to properly wear their masks.
Messman makes $9.30 an hour, but doesn’t earn any more for working overnight hours or holidays, and that’s just not enough, he said.
“I get paid starvation wages,” Messman said. “I sacrifice sleep, grades and a social life to work.”
Messman said student workers are “the lifeblood of the university” and ensure that everything runs smoothly. What would happen if none of them showed up to work one day, he asked.
Some jobs on campus pay higher wages. Student bus drivers, for instance, start at $14 an hour, and employees at the university’s medical centers make $15 an hour. But Parker said it’s a matter of principle to pay all student workers more.
Instead of paying student workers more, Parker said Ohio State contracts with a third-party employer called Upshift, which connects adults with part-time jobs in the area. Those jobs have a base rate of $18 an hour, he said.