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Working for Poverty


Thought of the day…

In order to have a society in which people make a living wage, we have to stop being a society in which we are willing to be paid less than a living wage.

It seems obvious but, if you stop and really think about it, it’s not.

A lot of us these days are under-employed or doing work that pays the bills but doesn’t match our skill set. I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had recently (OK, a few of them MIGHT have been with myself) with people lamenting “if only I didn’t have to worry about money I’d…” or “I wish I felt like I could just quit my job and…” And you know what? Some of those lamentations were over perfectly reasonable employment options – or options that were perfectly reasonable a generation ago but sure aren’t today.

In my own case (and, like the old adage says, write what you know) I know that’s true with teaching college. I loved it, I was excellent at it, I had high rates of student retention and student success, and I worked my butt off every day to be a quality employee, mentor, and continue my own learning process (even to the tune of a very serious conversation with my spouse reminding me I had a home life to pay attention to, as well). When there were cuts at my college and all pre-tenure faculty were laid off I was faced with a choice: leave the field or work for adjunct pay.

I wish I could say it wasn’t a hard decision. It SHOULDN’T have been a hard decision.

Seriously. It was a hard decision.

Because I loved my freaking job!

But I also felt – and still feel – so strongly that a job that requires you to hold multiple degrees should not also require you to apply for SNAP (food stamps) to “get” to do that work. And yet, more than 50% of the professors teaching right now in the US are adjuncts. That means that at least half of the workforce of an industry that requires a high level of certification is voluntarily agreeing to work part-time for low wages – definitely not sustainable living wages.

Why?

Why would anyone do that?

Why are so many of us doing that?

Because it’s not just higher education, not by a long shot.

And sure, we all give it lip service but very few people are actually trying to figure out what it means to create the paradigm shift that says NO MORE. In truth, the only actual resistance action I could even come up with was leaving my field and getting a different job that does pay a living wage.

That’s – well – that’s not really much of a rebellion. It was what I had to give, however, and I made the hard choice and walked away. Given another full time higher education opportunity I’m sure I’d go back, the love is real, but I’m committed to not working activity to forward a culture of work-based poverty in America, not in this industry and not in any industry if I can help it.

I need to think on this more, I don’t have any answers, I just know that it’s on my mind in a big way today.

(c) Regan Wann 2018

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