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Commentary

Job rankings create stigma

Once again, Oberlin College steps to the forefront in confronting one of the United States' most daunting problems. While President Clinton and Congress dilly-dally over gradually raising the minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.15, the College has instilled a campus wide raise, making the hourly minimum wage $5.25 instead of $5.10. Additionally the Student Employment Office has made a strong recommendation that departments abide by a ranking system where college jobs will be divided into 4 grades. The idea is to pay students accordingly for the skill and responsibility their job entails.

Under the "strong recommendation" of the Student Employment Office, students with grade 1 would be paid the base minimum and students with grade 4 would be paid considerably more than 1, 2 or 3. So what? So, this might widen the monetary gap between skill-less 1's (dish washers and custodial assistants) and responsibility laden 4's (students supervisors of offices, residents coordinators, etc.).

But it makes sense, right? Seriously, it might be hard and nasty work cleaning smushed tofu and egg out of gelatin bowls, or assisting in the removal of bottled vomit, but any debilitated fool can do those things. And compared to other 4 jobs, it's a piece of cake. That's why there's such a long line of students waiting for the opportunity to wash dishes and clean up after their peers. Seriously, skillful jobs oozing with responsibility, grade 1's are not. But let's talk about skill. First of all, it often takes mad skill to curry favor with office heads in the hopes of gaining some grade 4 job. And that's not even half of it. If you can possibly fathom it, imagine the mountain of intense skill and responsibility necessary for data entry or copy making or editorial writing or - gulp - dreaded coffee creation. Even Democratic Socialists with all their redistributive wealth rhetoric have to agree that grade 2, 3 and 4 jobs, with all their mental strain, totally eclipse those manual proletarian joints. And at a place like Oberlin where learning and skillful responsible labor are paramount, that eclipse warrants not only more money, less stigma and more clout, but most importantly.… a higher number.


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Oberlin

Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 2; September 13, 1996

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