(LOS ANGELES) Like many industries, graduate student workers at colleges and universities around the country are demanding better pay and living conditions f
(LOS ANGELES) Like many industries, graduate student workers at colleges and universities around the country are demanding better pay and living conditions from their employers as inflation and high costs, especially rent, drive them to the breaking point. Graduate student workers throughout the industry are saying their pay is unlivable, failing to meet or
Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) Like many industries, graduate student workers at colleges and universities around the country are demanding better pay and living conditions from their employers as inflation and high costs, especially rent, drive them to the breaking point. Graduate student workers throughout the industry are saying their pay is unlivable, failing to meet or catch up with inflation and soaring costs. Leading into the pandemic, workers in academia, including graduate students and student researchers, felt their pay and benefits from colleges and universities did not match the cost of living, Rachael Kuintzle, a PhD candidate at CalTech University and co-founder of the Graduate Student Action Network, told ABC News. This is an issue that was exacerbated by skyrocketing inflation and housing costs that have taken a "quantum leap," Nelson Lichtenstein, the director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy at the Univer