Brodie Thompson
Contributing Writer
My name is Brodie Thompson, and I’m currently a freshman at ESU. Along with writing for the Stroud Courier, I hold a student employee position on campus at Starbucks. The student pay at East Stroudsburg University is all over the place, varying widely from job to job. I sat down with several student workers to get their opinions on student pay, but before we get to that I would like to talk about my experience as a student worker. I get paid $12 hourly at Starbucks, and I believe we should be getting paid more.
Although $12 an hour does not seem too bad, it is in comparison to a corporate Starbucks stores, where employees make $15-$20 an hour. This is nearly a $3 to $8 difference, which ends up being, with a maximum 20 hour work week, about a $1,920 to $5,120 difference annually between the two semesters. Starbucks isn’t the only place where this problem lies; students have been getting paid extremely low wages all across campus, and, as students, we must advocate for ourselves.
I sat down with Breanne Richards, a student who works at our campus Starbucks, and I asked them some questions regarding the pay on campus. “So what are your thoughts on the pay on campus and what would you do to change it?” I asked.
“My thoughts are that…it’s not reasonable for students to be getting paid what they get paid, regardless of whether they’re a commuter or live on campus. In today’s economy, it is hard to make a stable living while only [making] $8 to $12 an hour. It’s difficult to afford even minimalistic items…some people don’t have the support of their families to maintain their lives,” Richards responded.
She went on to explain, “I think the ideal pay should be at a baseline of $15 to $17 an hour, at the minimum. This is taking into account what’s going on in the world as of late. If they’re paying us 12 dollars an hour (which is above the minimum wage in PA), how do they expect students to pay for basic necessities or even bills, like student loans or tuition.”
Last, I asked the Richards, “Do you think there should be health care benefits for student workers and what should they be?”
Richards replied, “I think there should be more benefits like health care and even medicare, especially for the students that are on their own or even some that don’t have relatives to support them.” I thanked her for her time and asked if she had anything further to say. She did not.
I also interviewed Alina Diez, who works for the Ecard center on campus. I asked her about the pay on campus, and what would she do to change it.
“Personally as a person who works at one of the least paying jobs on campus, with only $7.25, it kinda sucks because the maximum amount of hours allowed to work is 10 hours. Since I don’t have much student aid I have to pay a lot out of pocket, and the amount I get paid for working 2 weeks doesn’t even come close to what I have to pay…I feel like certain employers employ too many workers, and since there’s an abundance of workers it’s harder to raise the pay. For example, it’s crazy that we hire 4 student workers and they’re getting paid for what they do,” Diez said.
I asked, “What would your ideal pay be on campus? What’s a good pay for students”
She responded, “I think it should be $15 because why do people at the rec get paid $15 but I work at the ecard centre I get paid $7. It should all be on the same level, and there could be room for raises. In all, I think there should just be the base line of $15 an hour.”
Last, I sat down with Lilianna Kelly, a former campus Starbucks employee, asking, “What are your thoughts on the pay on campus and what would you do to change it?”
Kelly replied, “I think that the hourly pay rate on campus is way too low. I think if you are working you should get paid more. Especially since we are so reliable since most of us do live on campus, we should be getting paid more. I think the way I should change it is advocating for ourselves because, at the end of the day, we are what is holding this school together if that’s in jobs or in organizations.”
I followed up with, “What would your ideal pay be on campus? What’s a good pay for students?”
She answered, “I think a minimum should be at least $10 an hour and the fact is that some people are making $7 as the minimum is absurd. They should come with raises as well. There’s people that do their job to the best of their ability and there’s some people that don’t do anything. Students that are doing more than full-time workers then they should be getting paid more. I think that students get taken advantage of on this campus and it isn’t right that we as students are getting paid nothing.”
I asked her my last question, “Lastly, do you think there should be more benefits for student workers and what should those be?”
Kelly replied, “I think they should. If there are benefits being offered to non-students there should be benefits provided for the students. There should be equal ground for students.”
In conclusion, I believe all the points I’ve received were valid points. The pay for students on campus needs to be fixed soon because how can you rely on students to work basically minimum wage? How do you expect students to put in 110% if they’re only getting paid 7-12 dollars an hour? As a barista at Starbucks, I have seen so many people come and go and I’ve only been working there for a semester and a half. We, as students, need to stand and fight because, at the end of the day, our voices matter.