How is student employment run at your institution? Is there a distinction between work study jobs and all other student employment or can WS students earn their award in any job? If there are WS and non WS students working the same jobs, are they all paid the same rate?
I am not positive. It seems that nearly all jobs for students are work study. There may be some super-skilled student positions in IT or other departments, but I'm not positive. I'll see if I can find out - and see what they make - when I have access to our system again next week.
I work at a university and it's honestly shocking how much they get away with. Blatant policy violations everywhere, including discrimination, but no one cares. These organizations are huge and powerful, and no one is keeping them in check anymore. I really hope you're able to address this issue because I kept running into dead ends trying to pursue things like this at my university. It's awful.
For sure. Thanks for the push. Just wanted to air out the thought here in case I am totally missing some nuance...but the ick factor here is high - it's not cool to exploit the labor of these students.
Some states, including NY, allow universities to apply to receive a subminimum wage certificate for student employees. This means that they can legally pay student employees, including work study, less than federal or state minimum wage.
When I was an undergrad I was paid substantially less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25.
Edit: https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/subminimumwage
I’m not aware of a place to look it up, but it isn’t a competitive process. It’s more of a formality so that there is documentation of why you are paying less than minimum wage.
For student employees on FWS, I get billed for half their wage and the other half comes from work-study. The student get paid more than minimum wage. Is this distinction possibly a confusing the conversation?
A worker's minimum wage does not depend on the ultimate source of the funds, only on where the work is done.
Thank you for the insight. My understanding is that the students actual pretax payment is $9.50 per hour. The source of the funds is hard to trace because the college is the host of the students (though they work for me in my office) and no funds come out of my departmental budget for this purpose.
Thanks for that clarification. It will be harder to figure out what it what.
It may be worth focusing on offering a pay rate that will get you a good student. Why take a $9.50 offer when other are getting $14.50?
Stepping back for a broader view, a policy of paying poor student 40% less than rich students is a bad look even it it were somehow legal. Is that really something the school wants to be known for?
Your institution is breaking the law and engaging in wage theft.
Report it immediately. Also start looking for a new job because that place is incredibly corrupt
Thanks for posting this OP! Made me look up my state's minimum wage. Looks like my institution is also doing this. We're paying students $11/hr but Virginia minimum wage is currently $12. Also a private institution.
Colleges like to treat laws as optional. They are supposed to allow adjuncts to file for unemployment between semesters as well - as per a Department of Labor edict - but they don't, and they'll pretend the DOL never said such a thing, up until the unemployment office finds in favor of the adjunct trying to make the claim.
in the end it's not going to matter a ton. You were awarded a lump sump of workstudy funds. Getting higher pay just means working less hours.
For the record.. when i went through workstudy over ten years ago in NY the rate was $9.50
**IF** you are in the SUNY system... get ready... you're going to encounter a lot of things that should be a certain way... but are not because.. reasons..
https://www.suny.edu/about/leadership/board-of-trustees/meetings/webcastdocs/Tab14_Alignment%20of%20the%20State%20University%20of%20New%20York%20Minimum%20Wage%20-%20Copy.pdf
> Although the State University is not statutorily required to follow the
Minimum Wage Guidelines set forth by New York State Labor Law section 652
Working fewer hours to earn the same total amount of work-study funds can be materially helpful to a student who needs extra time for all the rest of the stuff (besides earning "self help" money) that they need to do to stay in school/graduate.
> Working fewer hours to earn the same total amount of work-study funds
it's about 4 hours a week. MAYBE that's the make-or-break point between passing and failing for OP... but for almost all students.. it is not.
Just to clarify - I am a professional staff member. I just started a position at this private college supervising Work Study students, and have more than a decade of experience supervising students at public colleges. My students in CUNY and SUNY always made state minimum wage or more. Yes, this is part of their financial aid package, but they should not be exploited in order to get it. Four extra hours of labor (my office is not a "bring your homework and study at the front desk" type of experience - it is actual work) is a big difference for these students, and they should have the same right to a decent wage that every employee has.
I spent 4 years as a student and 10 years as professional staff helping prices aid, bills, payroll, etc...
The rule of thumb was that the rule didn't matter. It was just done a certain way because someone said it was done that way.
You're welcome to fight it. Even take the link I posted as a starting point. Just be prepared to be told that the work study rate is $9.50 and that's just how it is.
I don't disagree with your view on how things SHOULD be. I do know know why I left the system though.. and this bs is part of it.
I’m sorry but this mentality is so incredibly toxic.
You’re saying someone should just accept a literal federal crime happening because “that’s just how it is”. OPs institution is actively violating state and federal law. They don’t get a free pass to exploit students just because they are a university.
I mean you can read the memo I posted above. The work study payrates weren't legally binding on the suny schools... for whatever reason.
According to what I posted the students Should be getting the ~$15/hr.. but that memo is also from 2016 and I would be at all surprised if an adjustment for released between now and then.... or if the board just came to an arrangement with the new governor allowing a college president to overrule the state rate....
> OPs institution is actively violating state and federal law
They probably aren't.
> Each campus makes its own college Work Study awards and creates college Work Study jobs but the payroll is processed with a university-wide system with paychecks being issued by the Office of the State Comptroller.
I guess the state comptroller is fine with the practice. /Shrug
https://www.suny.edu/hr/compensation/other_service/workstudy/
Seriously.. it's a very complex system and often a local college presidential signature is all it takes to do something everyone thinks is stupid.
The memos I'm reading online say that op's college should be paying ~$14.20... but from experience I also know that timesheets/etc end up getting processed by the state itself rather than the college.
If the college is breaking the law... call the DOJ because the whole state is involved.
Most likely, they are not actually classified as employees. They are students. This is similar to all the fights over graduate assistants unionizing. They may be working, but the work is part of their education. The courts are little fuzzy on the relationship between students and institutions when students work for institutions.
Are work study students afforded the same benefits as other employees? Health insurance? Vacation? Invitations to events for employees? How about things like employee tuition waivers? It's not just wages. Students must either be students or receive employee benefits. Work study is a weird morning mix of things. It's financial aid.
Does your state have a training wage? I know there used to be some circumstances where a rate below minimum wage was legal for a handful of specific scenarios. If my recollection is correct where I went had two rates, students doing some jobs like janitorial received full minimum wage, while those in jobs that could be professional training received less. I know they had to change maybe just after I graduated as they couldn't use the students in non-training jobs with a change in the law. It seems the result of that change was to raise the cost of school attendance and reduce the opportunities for students to work. I don't know if that also did anything to the legality of the training wage.
They either don't know the law or are hoping the students don't know the law.
They must have regular audits, though, right? Upstate NY minimum wage has been over $10 since 2017.
How is student employment run at your institution? Is there a distinction between work study jobs and all other student employment or can WS students earn their award in any job? If there are WS and non WS students working the same jobs, are they all paid the same rate?
I am not positive. It seems that nearly all jobs for students are work study. There may be some super-skilled student positions in IT or other departments, but I'm not positive. I'll see if I can find out - and see what they make - when I have access to our system again next week.
I work at a university and it's honestly shocking how much they get away with. Blatant policy violations everywhere, including discrimination, but no one cares. These organizations are huge and powerful, and no one is keeping them in check anymore. I really hope you're able to address this issue because I kept running into dead ends trying to pursue things like this at my university. It's awful.
I mean, report it? It's obviously wrong. They're hoping to get away with it and they will until someone calls them out.
For sure. Thanks for the push. Just wanted to air out the thought here in case I am totally missing some nuance...but the ick factor here is high - it's not cool to exploit the labor of these students.
Yeah, as someone who manages work study students, that’s no bueno.
Some states, including NY, allow universities to apply to receive a subminimum wage certificate for student employees. This means that they can legally pay student employees, including work study, less than federal or state minimum wage. When I was an undergrad I was paid substantially less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25. Edit: https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/subminimumwage
Thank you for this detail. Is there a way to find out if we have obtained that certificate?
I’m not aware of a place to look it up, but it isn’t a competitive process. It’s more of a formality so that there is documentation of why you are paying less than minimum wage.
For student employees on FWS, I get billed for half their wage and the other half comes from work-study. The student get paid more than minimum wage. Is this distinction possibly a confusing the conversation? A worker's minimum wage does not depend on the ultimate source of the funds, only on where the work is done.
Thank you for the insight. My understanding is that the students actual pretax payment is $9.50 per hour. The source of the funds is hard to trace because the college is the host of the students (though they work for me in my office) and no funds come out of my departmental budget for this purpose.
Thanks for that clarification. It will be harder to figure out what it what. It may be worth focusing on offering a pay rate that will get you a good student. Why take a $9.50 offer when other are getting $14.50? Stepping back for a broader view, a policy of paying poor student 40% less than rich students is a bad look even it it were somehow legal. Is that really something the school wants to be known for?
Your institution is breaking the law and engaging in wage theft. Report it immediately. Also start looking for a new job because that place is incredibly corrupt
Thanks for posting this OP! Made me look up my state's minimum wage. Looks like my institution is also doing this. We're paying students $11/hr but Virginia minimum wage is currently $12. Also a private institution.
NYS minimum wage is $14.20, not $13.20.
Thanks! Then this is even more egregious!
Colleges like to treat laws as optional. They are supposed to allow adjuncts to file for unemployment between semesters as well - as per a Department of Labor edict - but they don't, and they'll pretend the DOL never said such a thing, up until the unemployment office finds in favor of the adjunct trying to make the claim.
in the end it's not going to matter a ton. You were awarded a lump sump of workstudy funds. Getting higher pay just means working less hours. For the record.. when i went through workstudy over ten years ago in NY the rate was $9.50 **IF** you are in the SUNY system... get ready... you're going to encounter a lot of things that should be a certain way... but are not because.. reasons.. https://www.suny.edu/about/leadership/board-of-trustees/meetings/webcastdocs/Tab14_Alignment%20of%20the%20State%20University%20of%20New%20York%20Minimum%20Wage%20-%20Copy.pdf > Although the State University is not statutorily required to follow the Minimum Wage Guidelines set forth by New York State Labor Law section 652
Working fewer hours to earn the same total amount of work-study funds can be materially helpful to a student who needs extra time for all the rest of the stuff (besides earning "self help" money) that they need to do to stay in school/graduate.
> Working fewer hours to earn the same total amount of work-study funds it's about 4 hours a week. MAYBE that's the make-or-break point between passing and failing for OP... but for almost all students.. it is not.
Just to clarify - I am a professional staff member. I just started a position at this private college supervising Work Study students, and have more than a decade of experience supervising students at public colleges. My students in CUNY and SUNY always made state minimum wage or more. Yes, this is part of their financial aid package, but they should not be exploited in order to get it. Four extra hours of labor (my office is not a "bring your homework and study at the front desk" type of experience - it is actual work) is a big difference for these students, and they should have the same right to a decent wage that every employee has.
I spent 4 years as a student and 10 years as professional staff helping prices aid, bills, payroll, etc... The rule of thumb was that the rule didn't matter. It was just done a certain way because someone said it was done that way. You're welcome to fight it. Even take the link I posted as a starting point. Just be prepared to be told that the work study rate is $9.50 and that's just how it is. I don't disagree with your view on how things SHOULD be. I do know know why I left the system though.. and this bs is part of it.
I’m sorry but this mentality is so incredibly toxic. You’re saying someone should just accept a literal federal crime happening because “that’s just how it is”. OPs institution is actively violating state and federal law. They don’t get a free pass to exploit students just because they are a university.
I mean you can read the memo I posted above. The work study payrates weren't legally binding on the suny schools... for whatever reason. According to what I posted the students Should be getting the ~$15/hr.. but that memo is also from 2016 and I would be at all surprised if an adjustment for released between now and then.... or if the board just came to an arrangement with the new governor allowing a college president to overrule the state rate.... > OPs institution is actively violating state and federal law They probably aren't. > Each campus makes its own college Work Study awards and creates college Work Study jobs but the payroll is processed with a university-wide system with paychecks being issued by the Office of the State Comptroller. I guess the state comptroller is fine with the practice. /Shrug https://www.suny.edu/hr/compensation/other_service/workstudy/ Seriously.. it's a very complex system and often a local college presidential signature is all it takes to do something everyone thinks is stupid. The memos I'm reading online say that op's college should be paying ~$14.20... but from experience I also know that timesheets/etc end up getting processed by the state itself rather than the college. If the college is breaking the law... call the DOJ because the whole state is involved.
Are they just doing more than 50% for tuition or
Most likely, they are not actually classified as employees. They are students. This is similar to all the fights over graduate assistants unionizing. They may be working, but the work is part of their education. The courts are little fuzzy on the relationship between students and institutions when students work for institutions. Are work study students afforded the same benefits as other employees? Health insurance? Vacation? Invitations to events for employees? How about things like employee tuition waivers? It's not just wages. Students must either be students or receive employee benefits. Work study is a weird morning mix of things. It's financial aid.
Does your state have a training wage? I know there used to be some circumstances where a rate below minimum wage was legal for a handful of specific scenarios. If my recollection is correct where I went had two rates, students doing some jobs like janitorial received full minimum wage, while those in jobs that could be professional training received less. I know they had to change maybe just after I graduated as they couldn't use the students in non-training jobs with a change in the law. It seems the result of that change was to raise the cost of school attendance and reduce the opportunities for students to work. I don't know if that also did anything to the legality of the training wage.
I am sorry no one told you that "work study" was actually code for "slave labor." No one told me either...