Graduate stipends across the country are often inadequate when compared to living wage, according to data collected by Capital News Service. As of January 2023, the consumer price index (CPI) had risen 6.4% over the previous 12 months, and stipend amounts have often not kept up. Only a small number of college and university stipends surpass the living wage in their area, many of which are private institutions.
Graduate students typically work a set number of hours per week as graduate assistants or teacher’s assistants and receive a stipend based on research or other work they are performing for a university. Stipends typically increase annually – some at a faster rate than others. There are many factors that play into how much these students make, but typically, PhD students are awarded the highest pay.
Despite the stipend, basic necessities are often a financial burden to grad students. A 2020 study conducted by graduate students at the University of Albany found that graduate students are at a higher risk of mental health issues as a result of food insecurity. Food insecurity was reported by 59.7% of participants, as well as higher levels of anxiety, stress, and depression.
CNS collected data about stipends for biology students from fifty doctoral programs at colleges and universities across the United States from the individual school’s websites. In the chart below, we compare that data to the cost of living in the county where the school is located, using the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator. The highest living wage of the surveyed schools is $53,332 in New York County and the lowest is $31,737 in Montgomery County, Ohio.
Researchers from the University of Florida collected similar data comparing graduate stipends to living wage. Their data can be found here.
Stanford University boasts the highest graduate stipend at $48,216 per year, however the cost of living in Santa Clara County, California is $55,860. The lowest stipend amount from the surveyed schools is $13,000 at Wright State University, compared to a cost of living of $31,737 in Montgomery County, Ohio. In 6% of the surveyed schools, students are making less than half of the living wage for their county.
The University of Maryland, College Park offers a starting stipend of $29,591.74 annually for doctoral biology students, which falls $16,811.26 below the living wage in Prince George’s County. A 2022 University of Maryland survey indicated that 47% of graduate students felt cost burdened.
Only 10% of surveyed schools offer their students a stipend that exceeds the cost of living in their area. The average living wage amongst the schools in the data set is $38,939, and the average stipend is $30,904, a 21% deficit
In 2022, 50,000 academic workers from University of California (UC) schools rallied together to express their concerns about the low stipend they’re offered verse the high cost of living in California, according to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times. The union representing teaching assistants and researchers reached an agreement with UC administrators which would raise the stipend amount, but students will still fall short of California’s living wage.
University of Texas (UT) students came together to speak out against low wages and poor working conditions during a “grade in” which took place in December 2022, according to The Daily Texan, the UT Austin student newspaper. Students gathered outside the campus tower, chanting their demands.
Collective bargaining is the process in which a group of workers come together and negotiate with their superiors for better overall working conditions. Not all states allow for collective bargaining. Nine states prohibit public sector employees from unionizing, including Texas, North Carolina, and South Carolina. A vast majority of states have the right to collective bargaining, but each institution can choose whether or not they want to allow it.
In states like Maryland, collective bargaining laws only cover certain higher level institutions. University System of Maryland (USM) students are prohibited from forming a union. Graduate student groups, including Fearless Student Employees (FSA), and United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), are actively trying to change this.
Sen. Benjamin Kramer, D-Montgomery County, recently proposed SB0247, which would grant all USM schools, as well as Morgan State University and St. Mary’s College of Maryland, the right to unionize. It extends beyond just graduate students, and includes faculty as well.
At a hearing on February 16, Kramer explained that giving students this right is important so they can be recognized by the University for the hard work that they do.
“We have an outstanding university system here,” said Kramer, during the Senate meeting, “what I find disturbing and embarrassing is that we do not allow the hardworking women and men who are the ones who have made the university system so outstanding …we don't afford them the opportunity to bargain collectively”
Steve Fetter, the Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Maryland, has testified against this bill and against similar bills in the past.
This bill is currently in committee, and is one of twenty four proposed across the country in 2022 that would allow public school employees to unionize.
Methodology: CNS collected salary data from individual school websites. Living wage data was collected using the MIT Living Wage calculator to get an accurate living wage for each school's surrounding area based on the county where the school is located. The framework for the data featured in this story was inspired by similar data collected by graduate students at the University of Florida, found here.