I was a lecturer for a semester, many years ago. In my view the wages and working conditions of lecturers is highly variable. Your case may be unusual, or you'r

I was a lecturer for a semester, many years ago. In my view the wages and working conditions of lecturers is highly variable. Your case may be unusual, or you're in a specific field where lecturers are treated particularly well. In my case, there were no full time lectureships, only half-time, which came with no benefits. (I simultaneously applied for positions in two separate colleges of the university, which made up 100%, and then they had to give me benefits, but that's a freak event). The policy of no benefits for part-timers predates Obama. You are not a permanent employee, but have to re-apply for whatever is available each semester. You sign a form waiving many of your labor rights. In my state, public employees can't unionize, except for the police. Lecturers in the humanities get paid a pittance and often have to work at multiple schools to make ends meet. In most fields, the fact of being a lecturer disqualifies you from applying for a tenure track job because you have not been doing full time research to build up a publication record and funding proposal. Lecturers and post-docs face the same brutal odds against ever getting onto the tenure track.