Duke graduate students are demanding that the university increase wages for graduate workers from $38,600 to $50,000 a year, decrying the disparity between Duke’s stipends and stipends of other universities in its cohort.
The Duke Graduate Students Union (DGSU) spelled out the demand in a February petition that has garnered more than 1,000 signatures from graduate students, faculty and staff, and community supporters as of July 9.
The petition cites the current living wage in Durham County—$49,531 a year for a single adult with no dependents; $85,292 for an adult with one dependent—and notes that many of Duke’s peer institutions have moved to raise stipends in accordance with living wage calculations while Duke has not.
“Graduate workers are paid less at Duke than they are at Stanford, MIT, and all but one Ivy League university,” the petition reads. “Duke should recognize that competitive pay is crucial to fulfilling the goal of attracting and supporting a diverse group of talented graduate workers.”
In the 11 months since graduate students at Duke voted to unionize, the DGSU has been working to form a collective bargaining agreement with the university, a process that could take another year or more to complete.
The petition to raise graduate worker pay was circulated widely last week ahead of Duke’s first economic proposal to the DGSU, a key part of the bargaining process and the point when union members negotiate wages. It has continued to grow in the wake of that proposal, which did not shape up as the union had hoped, according to Matthew Reale-Hatem, a PhD candidate in environmental policy and a DGSU representative.
“The administration took seven months just to present this first proposal,” Reale-Hatem says. “So we had over 100 people watching to see what they would say. They essentially stalled for over two hours and refused to [discuss their proposed wage increase] until later in the bargain session, and then came back with the status quo that was already on their website.”
Duke had already announced on its website that it was going to raise the stipend minimum for graduate workers from $38,600 to $40,000 for the upcoming school year, Reale-Hatem says.
That’s a much smaller increase than the 11.4 percent increase implemented ahead of the 2023-24 school year, Reale-Hatem says, when the minimum was raised from $34,660 to $38,600.
“It’s worth noting that the increase to $38,600 came the same week as our initial launch rally for our campaign back in September of 2022, directly in response to our unionization offer,” Reale-Hatem says.
“If you look at grad unions at peer universities and what their contracts have won, the average has been $49,000 a year,” Reale-Hatem adds. “Accounting for characteristics of Duke, like the local cost of living and the endowment for the student operating budget, the amount that you would expect from Duke is also in the range of $48,000 to $51,000.”
Raising the stipend minimum to $50,000 a year would be a nearly 30 percent increase. The petition also stresses that as the largest employer in Durham, Duke bears the responsibility of modeling labor standards locally.
“Organizations across the Triangle look to Duke to lead as a fair and equitable employer,” the petition reads. “By ensuring that graduate workers receive a living wage, Duke can lead by example and contribute to the economic well-being of our community.”
Duke did not respond to an email asking for the university’s response to DGSU’s demand.
Another bargaining session between Duke and DGSU is on the calendar for Thursday, according to Reale-Hatem.
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