COGS holds rally at Iowa Board of Regents meeting demanding a 25% wage increase

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) - For students like Jada McDonald, a 25% wage increase would make all the difference.

McDonald’s is a graduate student studying at The College of Public Health. She works 60 to 70 hours a week at her four part-time jobs to support herself and she makes $6,000 as a graduate assistant, but that doesn’t cover her $9,200 tuition.

“I definitely have to sacrifice a lot right now. I sacrifice the level of education I can give myself and how much I can put into my coursework and the things that I love because I have to work to support myself,” said McDonald.

She and dozens of others were at the Iowa Board of Regents meeting Wednesday to make their voices heard.

COGS says it used MIT’s cost of living calculator and its estimate for the living wage in Johnson County to come up with the 25-percent wage increase demand.

The University says grad assistants make more than $37/hr, which is almost double the living wage in Johnson County, but grad students say they just want their fair share.

For the amount of work that we do and the current work and the long hours for the precarious position that we are in we’re not nearly a safe space financially or otherwise supported by the institution that we prop up it’s you know built a lot on our labor,” said one Steward in COGS Emma Croushore.

McDonald says this rally has shown how important making a stand can be and she’s hopeful in the end they will win out.

She said, “Don’t be afraid to fight for what’s right because at the end of the day like they said when we have numbers coming up to them with our statistics and our stories people will eventually listen and we’ll make some real change.”

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