I am a mathematics graduate student at an AMS Group 1 public university in Chicago. The university's estimated cost of living is $16,046, but our wage minimums

I am a mathematics graduate student at an AMS Group 1 public university in Chicago. The university's estimated cost of living is $16,046, but our wage minimums were significantly below this number (about $1k less) until two years ago, which was the result of over a year of contract negotiations during which we had to bring in an arbiter from the federal government because the university was not bargaining with our union in good faith. They also threatened to raise our health-care premiums and increase fees arbitrarily. The university also bans individual departments from paying their graduate students much more to compensate. In short, our university appears to be doing everything they can to extract money from their graduate students. It is ridiculous and nearsighted.