So I was talking to a couple of student council reps from work the other day (Student Council votes on the funds that pay for my position) and for the 4th time in 4 years I was asked if I would be willing to work more hours if they approved it in the budget.

Of course I would. My willingness and availability has never been the problem with keeping the lab open more hours. The problem is that the school (which is very quietly run by a private company and not by the state) keeps certain employees like lab monitors and tutors in a Walmart style part time ghetto. I am not allowed to work more the 16 hours a week because then the school would have to provide benefits. If I work more the 16 hours a week- I will be fired, period. I am also not eligible for merit or cost of living raises.

So I told the student council people this. I didn’t tell them that last year I did the math to figure out what it would cost to employ me full time including benefits. The income increase would only be about $10,000 per year (a huge amount for me but not so much on the grand scale) but the benefits increase would add a minimum of $12,000 per year. That would mean tripling the tech fees that the students pay each quarter – from about 30 dollars a quarter to over 90.

Now if they just wanted to increase the weekly lab hours to 24, I’m fine with that. I don’t really want to work full time and I could live on 24 hours a week. But even with an 8 hour weekly increase the $12000 in benefits still applies. Without benefits, the cost to the students in increased tech fees is less than $10 per quarter. With benefits, the increase in fees is over $42 per quarter.

If insurance was universal, then the students could get what they want (more lab hours), I could get what I want (more hours worked and a bigger paycheck and healthcare) and the school would be able to retain experienced tutors and lab personnel rather than having a high turnover rate ( I know at least a few tutors who have moved to the UW because the pay and benefits are better and when I did my little temp position there I was very well taken care of).
This is not a problem that is unique to public education, in fact it more of a problem in the private sector. To keep qualified employees you need to provide benefits, but the cost of health insurance is climbing so fast that it puts an unfair burden on businesses. (I know- I’m a pinko progressive, who would have thought I’d be talking about business needs). How can we expect business to keep hiring people if the cost of health care makes the cost of labor unbearable?