Colleges' current system for adjunct and contingent faculty leaves employees underpaid and with little job security, conditions that worsened during the pandemic, the American Federation of Teachers has found. A quarter of adjunct faculty report an annual salary that puts them below the federal poverty line, according to survey data released in February by the AFT, a union with 240,000 higher education members, including contingent faculty and graduate employees. In the midst of the pandemic, less than half of survey participants reported access to employer-provided health insurance, and nearly 20% said they were on Medicaid, the government health program for low-income people.
