Reply #48: While I was in grad school, TA and RA salaries started to [View All]

[IndyOp]

be taxed. Up until then they had been considered 'scholarships' and were income-tax free. Before they were taxed and back when student health insurance was decent - then the low salaries were still livable. Once they were taxed and health insurance began to cover only injuries that cost more than $5,000 (virtually) then, IMO, then RA and TA positions became 'jobs'. Many universities just don't get this. Of course, now that colleges & universities are operating on a 'business model' and state and federal funding has sunk like a boulder - the schools are trying to pay students less than crap. Tenure-track faculty are golden, the rest of us are in this together!

THANK YOU for what you are doing!

Instead of thinking about the oyster-eating witch, you might think instead of the innocent young children of students who don't have insurance coverage and who have access to (sometimes) less than adequate cheap daycare -- they will benefit immediately!

:yourock: