Los Angeles Times

UC workers say they are struggling to survive in California. Will strike bring change?

LOS ANGELES — For doctoral candidate and single parent Konysha Wade, the financial struggle is daily. More than half of her monthly earnings from her two on-campus jobs at UC Irvine goes toward renting her university apartment, where she lives with her 11-year-old son. She brings home about $2,700 a month after taxes from working as an African American Studies instructor and a graduate student ...
Unionized academic workers, student researchers and post-doctoral scholars demanding better pay and benefits rally at University of California Irvine on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022, in Irvine, California.

LOS ANGELES — For doctoral candidate and single parent Konysha Wade, the financial struggle is daily.

More than half of her monthly earnings from her two on-campus jobs at UC Irvine goes toward renting her university apartment, where she lives with her 11-year-old son.

She brings home about $2,700 a month after taxes from working as an African American Studies instructor and a graduate student researcher — all while taking at least two classes toward her Culture and Theory doctoral degree and raising her son. She said their rent is more than $1,500 a month, which leaves just over $1,000 a month for all other expenses.

“It’s so, so tough,” Wade, 29, said. “We barely make it. We are trying to survive on

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