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Stagnant Wages Despite Increased Cost of Living
Stagnant Wages Despite Increased Cost of Living
PhD Contracts, Explained.
PhD Contracts, Explained.
TA: Teaching Assistant. These are the students that help faculty run undergraduate and sometimes graduate courses. The pay is fixed across departments.
GSR: Graduate Student Researcher. These students are paid to conduct research for Principle Investigators (PIs). This funding comes from the PI or department, rather than the University.
GSR Steps: Salary Step for GSRs. Based on their funding, departments declare their students at a salary step. Departments may choose to pay their students more than the salary step with a "top-up".
You can find the list of salary steps per department here: https://collab.ucsd.edu/display/GDCP/Appendix%3A+Graduate+Student+Researcher+Step+Levels+by+Department
50% Appointment. PhD Students are only paid for 50% of the work week. This mean their salary covers 20 hours of work per week, both for TA and GSR. While some student might take classes for the remaining 20 hours, many do research the rest of the time for free. This 50% appointment guarantees that PhD students are not classified as full-time employees and do not gain the associated benefits.
9 or 12 Month Appointment. This describes how many months the department can guarantee funding for. Nine month appointments typically cover the Fall, Winter and Spring quarters. Students that are appointed for 9 months must find funding elsewhere during the summer.
The current contract was designed to keep pace with inflation but not with cost of living.
While Step 1 GSRs at 50% appointment initially made minimum wage, today both TAs and GSRs Step 5 and below take home less than minimum wage. This is legal due to the 50% appointment.
The current contract is outdated by the University's own 2011 standards.
Students at 9-month Appointments Struggle to Find Summer Jobs
Students at 9-month Appointments Struggle to Find Summer Jobs
Many departments can only guarantee TA positions or GSR stipend for 9 months. International Students legally cannot work outside of the University and are often unable to find a job over the summer. Even for US Citizens, finding a temp job for three months it challenging.
Research Financing
Research Financing
Case Study: Bioengineering
Case Study: Bioengineering
The UC's claims that its wages match other universities but ignores California's high cost-of-living.
Research funding supports a larger percent of non-academic staff than faculty, postdocs, students, or staff scientists.
Research funding supports a larger percent of non-academic staff than faculty, postdocs, students, or staff scientists.
33% of research funds go to support "other staff" while only 12% goes to graduate students. Even faculty only receive 24%.
[UCAR]
Federal and State Funding
Federal and State Funding
Federal funds support most of the research at UC
Federal funds support most of the research at UC
47% of research funding at UC comes from federal grants. While UC is California's main research university, state government marks the smallest contributor to research funding.
Only 1% of federal tax dollars goes to fund STEM innovation
Only 1% of federal tax dollars goes to fund STEM innovation
And only 3% to support education, which includes elementary through higher education (including vocational education). "Science and medical research" consists of general science, space, health, and technology research and training. This is how federal funding agencies (NIH, NSF, etc) receive their finances.
1% of the budget is approximately $60B.
Defense research: 13% of the budget goes to defense. Within the defense budget, 8% goes towards research (2% basic, 6% applied). The Department of Defense does fund graduate studies, but the projects are tied to defense goals and applications.
Note: Percentages do not add to 100 percent due to rounding
Source: 2022 figures from the Congressional Budget Office May 25, 2022.
California Budget Breakdown
California Budget Breakdown
This budget is for the $29B surplus.
California's suggested budget has K-14 education ("schools and community colleges") as the primary expenditure.
Housing and homelessness as well as higher education make up a minority of the state's budget plan.
2 relevant budget plans include $750 million (3%) towards building affordable student housing and $515M (2%) to building a Middle Class Scholarship Program.
California's Involvement in Higher Education
California's Involvement in Higher Education
- Established Multiyear Agreement
5% increase general state funding of UC and California State University (CSU) over 5 years.
3% specifically for CA undergrad enrollment growth
UC will increase enrollment
UC will increase tuition
- CA Expectations
18 UC-specific "expectations" set by the state
expectations focus on: access, equity, affordability, outcomes/preparedness, collaboration, online education
- CA Concerns
CA multiyear funding plan "establishes arbitrary future base increases regardless of underlying cost drivers"
Base increases are not linked to any specific cost increases
Enforcement is unclear
Governor operated without Congress (legislative) input
Congress would like to work together to create a better plan
Only 7% of California's Budget Addresses the Housing Crisis
Only 7% of California's Budget Addresses the Housing Crisis
$2B (7%) of California's budget is going to housing development with $700M
$1.3B (4%) is specifically for affordable housing
The Governor's plan primarily expands existing programs
This is a reduction from 2021-22
Congress states housing and homelessness remain one of CA's most significant challenges and suggest more/better action is taken
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