Note: The Etownian reached out to Student Senate and the Business Office, but were unable to receive a response due to time constraint. In addition, the statements in this piece are entirely the individual’s opinion and do not reflect the opinions of the Etownian. Some statements were edited for length and clarity.
Back in February 2020, the U.S. economy faced a recession in the midst of fear of the COVID-19 pandemic. To keep the economy afloat, corporations and businesses depended on “essential workers” to stay in business. Unfortunately, the berate and abuse of essential workers in customer service has driven the demand for the federal minimum wage to be up to $15 to reflect the current livable price tag. Back in January of this year, President Joe Biden increased the minimum wage for federal workers to $15 an hour. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf proposed to increase the minimum wage to $12 an hour on July 1, 2022, with it increasing 50 cents every year until 2028.
Over the past year, the student workers of Elizabethtown College have received a pay increase to reflect the new minimum wage of $8.25. The cap for this pay increase is $10. The Etownian posted an anonymous survey to the College’s social media, the Jay’s App to gather the students’ responses.
Out of the 41 responses, 78 percent stated that they work on campus. 42 percent said that they work off campus. 90 percent said that the minimum wage should be increased.
The majority of the comments have stated that there are higher paying jobs off campus. An anonymous student said, “I could be working at McDonalds for $15 or the Boutique for $10 putting in the same amount of effort I put in for $8.50.” Another said, “Students can work off campus (and very close to campus) for $13-$15.”
Though in the minority, a few students did not want to see a pay increase. One student said, “Although Etown pays less than my office campus job, with the little taxes that come out it is worth it. I think that if the minimum wage increased, there would be an increase in tuition.” Another student said, “I think students who advocate for a higher wage only see the short term benefit for themselves. In the long run this will raise costs for the College, in turn creating higher costs for students.”
The comments from the survey also suggested more options to help encourage students to work on and off campus. One student suggested, “The campus should do more to support off campus working students if they can’t pay us enough to work on campus and plan to continue raising tuition. Many other schools employ a program where students working off campus can get parking passes so they don’t have to walk super far late at night when they get back from work.” “At least give the workers some privileges like a meal up to a certain amount [be]cause some of the shift[s] cause you to miss dinner or [you] can grab something from the store,” another student suggested.
There is also a demand for specific jobs and the full time employees to see the benefits. “Dining service should be bumped up way more than it already is,” one student said. “Full time workers at Etown like the dining staff need a wage increase as well. Admin[istration] can’t be expected to pay their student workers more than the full time staff,” one student said.
In addition, there is consensus that the College depends on student workers. Students are required to work as a part of their financial aid. “Without student workers, places such as Dining Services, Admissions, ITS and more would not be able to function,” one student said. Another student said, “It’s expensive to be a student and student workers need to be shown that they are appreciated. The College depends on us for a decent amount of work, if we stopped one day they’d be [damaged].”
