UNC WORKERS UNION
UNC WORKERS UNION
Tar Heel graduate workers: Want to make $40,000 a year?
Our neighboring graduate workers at Duke increased their pay nearly $10,000 to $40,000 by calling for fair wages through a single protest (2022). Last year The University of Michigan, one of UNC Chapel Hill’s peer public institutions, raised stipends from $24,000 to $36,000 in response to graduate workers organizing. The quality of our work is competitive with theirs, and our compensation should be too.
Relative to peer universities, UNC Chapel Hill ranks last in pay adjusted for cost of living (Figure 1). The minimum stipend is $20,600, which the Daily Tar Heel previously reported as “unlivable”, meeting only 42% of the basic cost of living for a single adult with no dependents (MIT Living Wage calculator).
Figure 1. Benchmarking graduate stipend to peer public and private institutions as proportion of stipend to 12-month living wage.
Figure 2. Comparison of stipends as amounts issued in 2019 and 2022 and 2024 inflation adjusted amounts.
Inflation regularly costs us thousands of dollars. Relative to the previous $17,000 stipend, we have lost nearly 25% buying power in the last five years due to inflation and 12% buying power since the 2023 increase to 20,000$ (Figure 2).
Housing costs – even UNC graduate housing – consume half the stipend, burdening graduate workers (Figure 3). NC housing costs have increased “as high as 69% in fair market rents over the last five years, and as high as 34% in the last year.”
Administration has provided inadequate pay increases through fee removal for graduate workers, addition of 3k to the minimal stipend (2023), and recent inclusion of basic medical care as dental insurance in fall of 2024. These minimal gains were still the result of organized demands by graduate workers – future change requires collective action.
Figure 3. Housing costs visualized as percent of current stipend (fair market rate in 2024 listed by NCHFA).
Don’t be fooled by the notion that our stipend should be low simply because higher education is a privilege – UNC Administration dodges the very real obligation to pay a living wage by appealing to a sense of scarcity and gratitude for the opportunity to pursue higher education. Our teaching and research labor is economically vital to the mission and operations of the University. The university hires us not because of philanthropy, but because we are the best workers available to teach undergraduates and increase the university’s prestige through our research output. We need not tolerate underpayment any longer: administration knows that the valuable skills required for PhD acceptance at UNC are better remunerated by other employers, including peer universities.
What can you do? Workers at UNC Chapel Hill deserve a living wage of $40,000 in 2025. Sign the petition for a living wage at Action Net, and join your workers union at UNC to advocate for fair, humane treatment of the people who make UNC Chapel Hill a world class institution for research and education.