“If community colleges are of vital importance to the economic development of the Commonwealth then should not providing a living wage to those faculty and staff who directly provide that education be one of the highest priorities of the Commonwealth? Isn’t it just plain fair?”
I am the STEM Laboratory Manager and Safety Compliance Officer for MassBay Community College. This past May I became critically ill and then proceeded to be in and out of multiple hospitals until I had part of my pancreas removed in December. I exhausted all of my FMLA, PFML, PTO, and had to make use of the sick leave bank to cover this illness. During the course of this illness I attempted to return to work each time I was stable enough to do so, which resulted in being able to work about 2.5 months during the time span of the beginning of May to the start of the spring semester on January 21st. At one point I was working with a PICC line, long term IV, in my arm as I needed to have IV nutrition in the evenings, starting as soon as I returned home from work. I needed to be back at work because we were already paycheck to paycheck before my illness, and my illness caused us to need to do a GoFundMe to cover the medical bills -I was fortunate to have friends and family who were in positions to give my family the help we needed. There were not sufficient savings to draw on because my pay has been so low that nothing remains at the end of the month to go into savings. This was an incredibly difficult time for my children who turned 5 and 3, this past November. Each day, I went to work sick they were worried and afraid – afraid that mommy would get sick at work and no one would know how to help her, worried if I would come home or end up in another hospital where they once again would be unable to see me. If I had been paid a reasonable wage, I could have sufficient savings that would not have forced me to go back between treatments or while in pain.
Even though I am now healthy again, and back to work I still face huge challenges from the low rate of pay. I have two children who are in daycare, that is $2200 a month. My family is taking on debt from the cost of childcare; my physical therapy copays; and the copays for my son’s ABA services, he is autistic. I work a job which requires that I know general biology, chemistry, environmental science, several other subfields of these listed sciences, and be versed in laboratory safety as well as proper waste handling and disposal regulations for chemical and biological waste. I find myself asking why is it that I am not paid a living wage for such a highly skilled job that directly impacts the education of community college students, something that the state has now indicated is one of it’s high priorities. If community colleges are of vital importance to the economic development of the Commonwealth then should not providing a living wage to those faculty and staff who directly provide that education be one of the highest priorities of the Commonwealth? Isn’t it just plain fair?