On November 28, 2022 the Binghamton University chapter of the Graduate Student Employee Union announced the commencement of its living wage campaign. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator, “The living wage is the minimum income standard that, if met, draws a very fine line between the financial independence of the working poor and the need to seek out public assistance or suffer consistent and severe housing and food insecurity. In light of this fact, the living wage is perhaps better defined as a minimum subsistence wage for persons living in the United States.” The Living Wage Calculator computes that the living wage for one adult with no children in Broome County is $34,574 per year. In comparison, Binghamton University graduate and teaching assistants make between $10,788 and $26,824 with an average yearly salary of $19,428. This is only 56 percent of the minimum subsistence wage needed to survive. We, the undersigned graduate workers and their supporters, demand that Binghamton University pay all of its TAs, GAs, and RAs a living wage.

While Binghamton University turns a profit by exploiting its graduate student employees, those same employees suffer and struggle to make ends meet. The meteoric rise in inflation along with the housing crisis and climbing rent prices in Binghamton leave graduate employees barely able to afford basic necessities. In a recent survey conducted by Binghamton GSEU, over 40 percent of graduate employees said that they could not afford adequate housing. Graduate workers cannot always afford to eat three meals a day and sometimes go without proper heating, hot water, or internet. Graduate workers take out student loans to pay for living costs and live off credit cards until they find themselves mired in debt.

Even though graduate student employees are contractually obligated to spend no more than 20 hours a week on TA/GA duties, they should be paid the living wage of a full time employee. Graduate students are professionals— they are generally not supported by parents, and often have their own families and children. Over half of all pedagogical labor is performed by graduate employees, and many teach one or two classes as instructors of record. Graduate workers can lose their jobs as a result of poor research or poor academic performance, which is entirely unrelated to TA/GA work. Therefore, the job of a graduate worker consists not only of TA/GA responsibilities, but also of classwork and research duties. Combining TA/GA duties with the work coming from classes and research, graduate employees usually work 60-80 hours a week. Furthermore, graduate students who work as TAs or GAs are, according to their contract, not permitted to have any other job. It is time that the university remembered that graduate workers are the backbone of this institution and that without them SUNY Binghamton would soon be brought to its knees.

Recent major wage hikes at SUNY Buffalo, Stony Brook, ESF, and Upstate Medical show that it is not only possible to pay graduate students a higher wage but that it is necessary to do so in order for Binghamton to remain competitive. Every worker the world over is owed a living wage to support themselves and to ensure the barest measure of human dignity and financial security. Every graduate worker at Binghamton University is one medical emergency, one car accident, or one rent hike away from financial catastrophe. The current situation is untenable. We demand that Binghamton University end the exploitation of its graduate workers (TAs, GAs and RAs) regardless of their program, funding status, or place of employment on campus, and pay each and every one of them a living wage.