It’s near impossible to escape mention of the cost of living crisis these days. For many Otago University staff not paid a living wage, it rings even more true. Critic Te Ārohi was approached by hall staff to voice their frustration at not being paid a living wage.
The current living wage for 2024 and 2025 is $27.80. With Victoria University having committed to paying their staff the living wage on September 9th, increased pressure has been placed on Otago Uni to follow suit, something the Uni claims they’re “striving to achieve.”
Many students are employed by the University in a part-time capacity. Most full-time employees, however, don’t have the option of supplementing income with the likes of StudyLink, student allowance or a wealthy parent’s safety net to make ends meet week-to-week.
Critic Te Ārohi spoke to one of these employees, Joanna*, a full-time staff member at a residential college on an hourly wage. “I think there are many [residential college staff] that feel we aren’t paid fairly. The work I do is physically demanding in a high pressure environment, yet my renumeratiation is not much above minimum wage,” she told Critic. “My position has major responsibilities directly related to the well-being of young students. And I am, as many others, undervalued.”
A lack of living wage is a struggle for all University staff, but Joanna pointed out that it’s a major struggle for hall staff, especially since they are only open for the academic year, closing down for most of November to February each year. This leaves non-student hall staff out of pocket for the summer months – a somewhat inconvenient shortfall in work at what many find the most expensive time of year.
“We can apply to do summer work. Far less demanding than our usual roles, with better hours regarding lifestyle. Ironically, I got a better hourly rate folding sheets than I do working at a hall,” Joanna said. “We are the people that keep the machine running. Without us, the machine would simply stop. We are necessary. We are vital to our employer. So definitely, we deserve a living wage.”
The question of a university paying its staff living wage is not completely out of the question, despite bleak financial outlooks for many of Aotearoa’s universities. Only recently, Victoria University of Wellington’s council came to an agreement on a plan to pay all staff a living wage, including contractors (an often forgotten group in wage negotiations).
Victoria Uni Students’ Association President Marcail Parkinson told RNZ in June that their demands for adequate pay would recognise how crucial these workers – cleaners, tutors, administrators and other support staff – are to the proper functioning of the university. In the same RNZ article, National Living Wage Movement chair Rev Stephen King (not the thriller novel author) said universities are anchor institutions with a responsibility to ensure their workers are paid enough to get by and live a decent life.
Another pair of Otago Uni workers who Critic Te Ārohi spoke to (one student and one-full time) at a campus cafe said they “didn’t feel fairly paid” for the work they did. When informed about Victoria’s move to pay living wage, they also said this made them feel “undervalued”. On hearing the same news, Joanna said she felt “incensed” that our own university has made no public plans to follow suit: “Again, it makes myself and my colleagues feel totally undervalued.”
In response to these concerns, Otago Uni’s Director of Human Resources Kevin Seales said, “Paying staff the living wage is something that we are striving to achieve, and the vast majority of our employees are currently paid at or above that level. There are just a small number of staff – often those in roles such as tutors and demonstrators – who are not paid the living wage. However, they are all paid well above the minimum wage.” Minimum wage is currently $23.15 per hour before tax.
Seales added, “It is worth noting that as part of progress, from 1 January 2025 all of our tutors and demonstrators, apart from those on Level 1 who have no previous experience (there are four levels), will be paid the living wage.” When asked about whether Victoria University's decision to pay living wage sets a precedent for other universities in Aotearoa, Seales said, “[The University] respects the decisions made by other universities and will continue to review its own practices.”