Student Employment

Win/Win Situation

Washburn University receives an enormous benefit from student employees. Students can be found working in various places, including computer services, housing, food services, the libraries, security, athletics, tutoring and in administrative support roles. Students enjoy an opportunity to earn extra money with a flexible schedule that accommodates their school schedule. Sometimes, the student even gets an opportunity to "try out" their new career while still a student.

Fair Treatment

It would be nice if the university showed more appreciation for the work completed by students. Currently, students earn $6.15 to $7.50 per hour in their first year of employment, with raises of $0.25-$0.35 each year thereafter, depending on the employment category.

A Student Employment Advisory Committee is supposed to recommend changes to the university's student employment policies and procedures. Serious consideration needs to be given to adjusting pay scales to better reflect the value of the student labor received, a change from monthly to bi-weekly pay schedules, and maybe some guidelines that prevent the university from changing a student's hours in the middle of a semester.

For example, this Committee should have addressed the ITS student employees' issues when their hours were recently cut from 20 to 4 hours per week. To tell students that the budget is tight is simply not good enough, since the monies would have been allocated when the annual budget was set.

Problem Resolution

There are strict federal laws governing how employers are to treat hourly workers. Students are protected by these laws. One of the common ways that Washburn University has avoided compliance with the federal law is to avoid paying overtime pay when a student works over 40 hours per week. Confusion in this area is due to one of Washburn University's stated policies:

"By action of the Board of Regents, the work week for any student employed by Washburn University, regardless of the fund to which the wages are charged and whether during the time classes are meeting or during recess or summer periods, may not exceed 40 hours a week."

Sometimes employers attempt to avoid the Wage & Hour rule by asking employees to complete the time sheet inaccurately, by putting overtime hours on the next week's time sheet. Other times, overtime pay is simply ignored. If you believe that you have been mistreated by underpayment of wages due to you, you can ask your supervisor to review your pay. If that is unsuccessful, you can contact your local federal Department of Labor, Wage & Hour Division. They will be happy to assist you with your claim at no cost to you.