Texas State University students are seeking a higher wage and work benefits due to the rise cost of living in San Marcos.
Student workers and undergraduate instructional assistants at the university are getting paid the state minimum age of $7.25. Some students speculate it is a funding matter that their compensation is low because many departments have increased their wage during fall 2023 semester while some haven’t.
Students like Bobbie Cortez and Angela Noronha were one of many students that had to live through the low compensation and how unlivable it is.
Bobbie Cortez, a junior at Texas State, worked on campus for few semesters. Cortez worked as a front-desk secretary for the department of Finance and Economics. He eventually left the job at the end of the Spring semester 2023 and now work a job off-campus.
“I think that anybody who work student worker position either has to be supported by their family or lives is squaller essentially” Cortez said.
Angela Noronha on the other hand, is an international student from France. Noronha started her job on campus as French tutor the semester of fall 2023. As a native French speaker, she only receives $8/hr. Due to having a student visa, Noronha is not allowed to work outside of the university which makes it difficult to find job in her interest and pays well.
Despite the pay, she will stay in job hoping they will increase her pay said Noronha.
What has brought light to the issue of wage problem, was a student non-profit group named Young Democratic Socialist of America (YDSA) with their campaign “Raise the Wage”.
Raise the Wage culminated a petition where they got 1600 signatures which was sent the university president and the Board of Regents said YDSA co-chair, Allen Dominguez.
In May 2023, they protested on campus to bring light to the matter and later that month joined the Board of Regent meeting to request for a higher wage and better work benefits. They requested students to get a minimum pay of $15 per hour, more hours, healthcare and paid-time-off.
YDSA and other students concern started when living cost in San Marcos started to rise the past years. The cost of housing, healthcare and transportation in San Marcos is higher than the national average. Considering students get paid $7.25/hr they will receive around $400 for a month due to the low hours which is not livable in San Marcos. An average price of apartments around Hays County is $1425.5 according to Apartment List.
According to data collected from Data USA, poverty in San Marcos is really high among young adults (18-24 years old) which is the age range of college students. Most of young adults are also uninsured than insured. Jobs on campus does not offer any health benefits to student workers.
Yakima Anderson, career experience coordinator at Texas State, said students have the options to work as work-study worker or as regular wage worker.
Students must be eligible to be a work study worker. It is based on the financial needs of the students after they filed their FASFA. After their financial has been calculated, the fund is provided by the government. However, regular wage students are not eligible for work-study, not deemed for financial need. Their salary comes directly from the department’s budget.
Career services do offer help to students that are seeking job on-campus, but $7.25 is the baseline of the wage, said Anderson.
“Departments receive annual budgets, and they are able to dictate what the salary range will be for the student employment position” Anderson said, “On average, students are paid anywhere from $10 to $11 on campus so it might be rare to find a position that is at the federal minimum wage.”
As of fall 2023, only few departments have increased their raise to $15 after the “Raise the Wage” campaign said Leyla Anderson. However, YDSA requests for higher wage were ultimately declined.
“The basis of that is, we cannot instate a minimum wage increase across the board” Dominguez said, “which is incorrect, they already do so but at the federal minimum wage, $7.25.”
For more information on job opportunity around campus, you can visit the career services at LBJ student center 5th floor or www.careerservices.txst.edu. More information on YDSA campaigns contact socialists@txstate.edu.
