The St. Lawrence University dining crew is severely understaffed, and they are paying their part-time workers $13.70 an hour and their student workers $10.40 an hour. Meanwhile, the McDonalds on main street has no trouble finding employees from both the St. Lawrence student body and the local community. The starting pay at McDonald’s is $15 an hour.
Upon inquiry, workers at the pub expressed that they were already understaffed a year ago, and as one worker stated, “If anything, it’s only gotten worse.” When asked if a pay raise for both students and local part-time workers would bring in more help, all four workers listening nodded in agreement, and a different worker spoke up. “Yes. I mean other places in town offer higher. That’s why no one is coming here.” Since the St. Lawrence Dining Staff has a labor shortage, they can offer more hours than other businesses in town, but until the hourly pay is equal to or greater than what McDonald’s and other local fast-food chains offer, the incentive is not as strong.
New York State minimum wage is $13.20, so this means a wealthy liberal arts school is paying essential workers just 50 cents above minimum wage, and $1.30 less than the McDonald’s down the road. If you are reading this and have been frustrated with the production of dining services, please note that the only people who are not at fault are the ones showing up to work every day to serve. Administration likely assumed that students would fill in the gaps and provide much needed labor because it’s so convenient to work on campus, but this is clearly not the case. When asked why she has never considered working part-time at St. Lawrence, a McDonald’s worker from the local community had this to say: “You know how many students work here? A lot. Why work for the school when they can walk down the street and earn $15 an hour with us?”
The dining staff at St. Lawrence has now endured around two years of being understaffed, and high labor demand has not been met with competitive compensation. With an endowment of $315.7 million dollars, St. Lawrence is well endowed for its size, and some students are advocating that employees of such an institution should not be paid less than McDonald’s workers. Let’s hear how the St. Lawrence community weighs in on this issue.