The University of Kentucky recently increased graduate workers’ pay. Teaching assistant Anika Jensen writes it still won’t be a living wage. (Getty Images)
As a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Kentucky teaching the first-year writing sequence, I facilitate students’ transition to college. I am often the first instructor who knows their names, who sits with them in office hours, and who helps guide them toward the resources necessary for their success. I teach, but I also mentor, triage, and support. I do this at the same time that I am writing my dissertation and advancing my scholarship, and I do this all for $17,000 a year.
For the 2024-2025 fiscal year, the University of Kentucky touted a budget of more than $8 billion. Both President Eli Capilouto and Provost Robert DiPaola have annual salaries exceeding $1 million each. Meanwhile, UK graduate workers — graduate students who teach, do research, and perform essential labor that keeps the University running — make an average of $19,000 a year.
The MIT living wage calculator estimates that the living wage for a single person with no children living in Lexington is $41,000 a year. Year after year, the University claims that it values and supports its graduate students, but its words do not reflect its actions, and we continue to struggle living on low wages.
On April 9, the University of Kentucky announced new baseline graduate stipends for fiscal year 2026, with baselines increasing across departments by an average of 11%. This is a step in the right direction, but it is still not enough; even the highest baseline still falls below the Lexington living wage.
Moreover, graduate workers on nine-month contracts (who do not work and are not paid over the summer) will still earn below the baseline. All graduate workers, including those on nine-month contracts, need a living wage. The University of Kentucky cannot function without graduate workers, and teaching assistants (TAs) are essential in providing meaningful education for undergraduates and meeting learning outcomes. It’s time UK pays us what it owes us.
Graduate teaching assistants greatly enhance the undergraduate experience. A student’s first semester can impact the course of their entire education, and as TAs, it is our responsibility to make sure they feel confident, supported, and welcomed at the University of Kentucky. I have written recommendation letters for scholarships, internships, and even graduate school, and my former students continue to update me with their personal and professional successes. Teaching assistants at the University of Kentucky are highly trained, skilled, and qualified, and they change lives every single day.
Moreover, undergraduate students at UK deserve TAs who can provide their very best teaching, and TAs can only do this when we are financially supported.
When we accept our positions, we sign away our right to seek off-campus employment, despite the fact that our stipends are largely too low to live on. Many TAs, like me, can work on-campus jobs for up to eight hours a week, though we have to jump through dozens of hoops to be able to do so. I cannot do my best teaching when I am worrying about whether or not I will have enough money to feed myself. I cannot do my best teaching the morning after a closing shift, when I am running on little sleep. If the University of Kentucky values our undergraduates, if we want our TAs to be performing at their highest capacity, it must pay us a living wage.
University of Kentucky administrators believe that graduate teaching assistants do not need higher wages because we are only part time trainees. They expect that the tuition waiver, the experience, and the passion we have for teaching is compensation enough. My tuition waiver, my experience, and my passion do not pay my rent.
TAs work hard creating syllabi, planning and delivering lessons, grading, working with students individually in office hours, and caring for and supporting students in crisis. All the while, we are expected to prepare for our exams, write our dissertations, and apply for jobs. Certainly, TAs receive important training at the University of Kentucky, but we also perform essential labor.
Without TAs who are supported and financially secure, undergraduate education will suffer.
Since United Campus Workers (UCW) chartered at UK in 2020, administrators have consistently refused to meet with union members, citing the argument that we are an outside organization. We are not. We are just workers, and these are our demands: $25K baseline stipends for all graduate workers by 2025 without cutting teaching assistant or research assistant lines; an end to discriminatory fees for international students; and a long-term plan to continue adjusting stipends to the cost of living.
If the University of Kentucky wants to be a leader in the state and in the Southeastern Conference, and if it values undergraduate education, it must pay its graduate workers a living wage.
About the author:
Anika Jensen is a graduate student at the University of Kentucky and a member of United Campus Workers.