In this May, 2024 article, The Chronicle of Higher Ed profiles Amanda Reiterman, a UC-AFT lecturer at UCSC, about her decision to leave UCSC after learning she was making less than the Teaching Assistants helping her with her course. Read more about Amanda’s story at the Chronicle.
We applaud the raises that our UAW colleagues achieved through their 2021 strike. But those hard-earned gains have also resulted in unacceptable wage inversions impacting some of our fellow UC-AFT members. Since mid-April, UC-AFT members and allies have been sending emails to UC administrators demanding that they take action to ensure that no lecturer be paid less than their TA, nor than a GSI teaching the same class. The pay gap and inversion between some lecturers and graduate student instructors has been widening, and the UC can and must pay its teaching faculty fairly. If you haven’t done so already, please take just one minute to do this action so we can keep the pressure on!
For all lecturers currently receiving their reappointment letters or preparing for a merit review, UC-AFT encourages you to request a review of your salary and/or your workload equivalencies for any class you’re assigned to ensure that you are not (or will not be) earning less than your TA.
A template for this request is here:
Dear chair,
I am writing to ask for a review of my salary to ensure I am not earning less than the TA(s) assigned to my class. As the instructor of record, hired by the UC because of my experience and degree(s), it would be unprofessional and unethical to pay me less than a student worker who has less experience and lacks the degree required for my own job. There are 3 ways the University can remedy such a pay inversion:
- Departments can offer lecturers a pay adjustment. There is nothing in the UC-AFT collective bargaining agreement that prevents revised appointment letters and/or adjustments to pay rates off-cycle.
- Departments can adjust the workload evaluation of a given course. If the work associated with a class is greater than the compensation, the University has the power to adjust the “instructional workload credit” (IWC) assigned to any course to ensure parity in terms of appointment percentage and compensation.
- Article 24.B of the UC-AFT collective bargaining agreement allows for the assignment of “workload equivalencies” which simply adds to the valuation of the course for performing certain types of additional work. Working with and mentoring TAs is one such justification.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
