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Why do employees keep voluntarily accepting that type of abuse? Low wages aren't a secret and the employees doing that work aren't idiots so they must know what
by nradov 2y ago
Why do employees keep voluntarily accepting that type of abuse? Low wages aren't a secret and the employees doing that work aren't idiots so they must know what they're getting into. Are they doing it out of some sort of moral duty, or as immigrants seeking permanent resident status, or is there some other reason? Presumably if people stopped accepting those wages then the wages would have to rise.
- caycep 2y agoA lot of this is defined by the NIH, K23/R01 grant amounts specify what kind of salary they support and are kind of defined by the powers that be... UC system def has more overhead than usual, and there may be some cost-of-living adjustments but... Hence why a lot of us went into private practice...
- bruce511 2y agoI'll add in that it's a buyer's market. There are plenty of post docs with no work (who want to work in the academic space) so if you don't want the post there are plenty in line who do. There's no post-doc-research union to set and enforce reasonable pay scales, but equally a union would have difficulty adjusting rates to local cost of living. Put another way - supply and demand baby, supply and demand.
- _yb2s 2y agoUC postdocs are unionized… but it’s not a great union. The higher paid postdocs saw their pay and benefits go down from the union.
- _yb2s 2y agoThose numbers aren’t accurate anymore they’re out of date and now much higher. Also, I voluntarily pay my students and postdocs 2-3x those numbers currently. But ultimately (1) those are seen as training positions that lead to a tenured faculty position, which pays fairly well, and has a lot of job security and freedom; (2) certain granting agencies limit what you can spend on students and postdocs, to levels that are too low for HCOL areas.