Every week the editorial board reflects on a current issue in Our View. The position taken does not reflect the opinions of everyone on the Hilltop Views staff. This week the editorial board is Jacob Sanchez, print editor-in-chief, and Viewpoints editors Erin Downey and Eleanor Fishbourne.

The wages for on-campus jobs at St. Edward’s University have never seemed quite right.

At St. Edward’s, you can only log up to 10 hours a week of work and wages start at about $8 an hour, depending on your credit hours. While yes, $8 an hour is higher than the national minimum wage, students are working extremely hard and deserve to be earning more.

With the 10 hours rule, students who are putting in more than 10 hours a week of work are not being fairly compensated out of fear of their timesheets being disapproved.

Students who are seeking these on campus jobs are often there because they are granted work-study and have already proven they have low income. Even if students are not low-income, hard work should always be properly compensated and as of now it is not.

Ten hours a week is just enough to take away time that would be needed to get a second job but not quite enough to be a sufficient income. Many students are using this income to help towards student loans and paying for their tuition, but $8 an hour makes little difference.

Some jobs on campus should being paying out right. Though others require some experience to prove that students are able to put in good, hard work and earn the privilege of working a paid job. Though in either case, St. Edward’s students deserve to be earning more for the kind of work they are doing.

Students who are in need of money often take the initiative to get a job because they need the money.

Often times student do not have cars to get to off-campus jobs. So it makes sense to work at the place you study.

And it’s not like this school is tight on money. With its estimated $50,000 a year tuition, it makes sense to give some back to the students who are working hard at keeping St. Edward’s — a tuition-dependent university — afloat. 

Other schools, such as the University of Texas at Austin, are currently offering part time jobs that pay $9 to $10 an hour. Some of the starting rates for jobs at Texas A&M University are as high as $12.

St. Edward’s should look at these examples of fair pay and change it’s own policies.

We all know the university values all students, but giving us higher wages would truly show how much St. Edward’s cares about us.