Eric Zuniga, Campus Carrier deputy news editor

James Fox, Campus Carrier staff writer

Stagnant wages and limited opportunities for advancement are leaving many students dissatisfied with Berry’s LifeWorks program, pushing some to seek jobs off campus in search of extra income. 

Berry last revised its signature student work program in 2020, before the onset of the highest surge in inflation since 1981. The college raised its base wage for student workers from $7.25 per hour to $9 per hour while reducing the maximum number of hours students could work. 

Although student work wages have remained unchanged, inflation has increased prices by a cumulative 17% over the past three years, according to statistics from the Department of Labor. This means that student workers are now earning significantly less than what $9 per hour was worth in 2020.  

Senior music major Sydney Godfrey has had to navigate the reality of living off student work wages during her time at Berry. As a first-generation college student, she was attracted to Berry because of its emphasis on work opportunities, but eventually found that on-campus jobs would not be enough to pay her living expenses. 

“Once you get older, you have more expenses—I have loans to pay off, I have bills for my pets and things like that, I have a car payment,” Godfrey said. “If I only had the Berry job, I’d quite literally not make it.”

Godfrey now has two jobs off campus, working as a waitress at Olive Garden and as a music intern at a local church, in addition to a position on campus as a lead stage manager for the music department. She said that working so much has taken a toll on her wellbeing and academic performance. 

“It’s really frustrating because you get out of a nine to five day of straight classes all that time, and then you have to go straight to work. It makes you almost scream,” Godfrey said. “It’s definitely been hard for sleeping and stuff. I don’t have time to do a lot of homework, so I have to take my little breaks during the day that I have now.”

The low student work wages have made it difficult for Godfrey to justify keeping her job on campus. Although she works in a supervisory role that is relevant to her degree, she often feels that the pay is not enough for her to fully commit to the job. 

“The most difficult thing for me is probably having the motivation to do that job on top of the other two that I do,” Godfrey said. “I want to devote all of my time to this Berry job because I love it, but it’s hard to do that if you’re getting paid more at another place.”

Many students feel limited by the 12-hour weekly work limit and the current pay scale for LifeWorks jobs. The pay for level 4 and 5 supervisory positions is $9.50 per hour, only 50 cents more than the introductory wage. Senior Hadley Davis, who also works shifts at Olive Garden in addition to a job on-campus in grounds, said that these higher-level roles are not being compensated fairly. 

“I have friends on my [grounds] crew who have worked all four years and every single summer they become student supervisors because of it,” Davis said. “They’re only making 50 cents more than me, and they do a lot more than I do, and that’s just not fair. They really need to have higher increases.”

Godfrey said that raises should be based off amount of work experience rather than position level. 

“One of the people who works for me has been a level one the entire three years just because he didn’t ask for a raise,” Godfrey said. “But it’s like, I shouldn’t have to ask for a raise. It should be an automatic, ‘you’ve been in your position more than one year, good job.’”

Freshman animal science major Sarah Roy works in two positions on campus, one at a chicken coop under the Berry Farms enterprises and another as a Cultural Events usher. While she appreciates the relevant work experience, she finds it difficult to get a good number of hours in a crowded department. 

“It’s not necessarily the wages as much as it is the hours—like, I get paid two hours a week at the Berry [Farm] Enterprises,” Roy said. “I do remember them saying it would help us pay, but honestly, it’s kind of just pocket money. It’ll just get you by, bare necessities.”

Roy said that she now makes significantly less than she did at a job at Dunkin’ Donuts, which has made it difficult to budget for anything beyond necessities. 

“It was definitely hard to adjust to getting a smaller [wage], because I think my paychecks were like $300, $400, and now they’re like $50,” Roy said. “I think that I buy less for myself. I don’t really look past bare necessities anymore, or if a friend has a birthday coming up, I don’t really have the [ability] to go out for stuff anymore.”

Though Berry often emphasizes its history as a school that has given opportunities to the disadvantaged, the brunt of low work wages is borne by students who are already struggling to pay for college. Davis said that many students like herself don’t have the privilege of financial support from their family. 

“I myself am in a scholarship group of people who come from less than fortunate backgrounds, and I know a lot of us struggle to survive here because we don’t have parents that are supporting us,” Davis said. “There are a lot of us here who don’t have that privilege, and it’s hard for sure.”

Davis feels that the current wages also hurt the college as a whole, giving students little reason to take their work seriously.  

“A more serious pay would lead to more serious workers,” Davis said. “People could feel like they’re actually getting real experience, making real money and actually making a difference for their future lives, instead of just wasting time here to make some money to survive.”

Though students disagree on the feasibility of raising work wages, many agree that significant changes should be made to the LifeWorks program, which cost the college $5.4 million in 2019. Godfrey said that Berry should focus more on giving students meaningful work opportunities. 

“A lot of these jobs are just us cutting the grass, or us sitting the desk at the library, or us simply sitting and doing our homework,” Godfrey said. “If they can’t accurately say everyone’s going to have a job that’s going to benefit you, don’t advertise that.”

In Godfrey’s view, if Berry wants to keep student work as a selling point, the college will eventually have to raise wages.  

“If I can go off campus and get paid more in one night at Olive Garden than I do for two weeks of work at Berry, it’s not going to be worth it for a lot of people,” Godfrey said. “If you want to keep the student work program alive and thriving like it is right now, you’re going to have to raise the pay. We put a lot of our time and effort into that and I feel like we’re just kind of thrown to the wolves.”