AmeriCorps Members Deserve To Be Paid a Living Wage

It’s graduation season and thousands of newly minted college graduates will be searching for a job. Some of them, like me, will look into AmeriCorps programs to find a job where they can make a difference to their community while also launching a career in public service or education.

There are currently more than 75,000 Americans serving in an AmeriCorps program around the nation. President Kennedy created AmeriCorps in 1963 as a way to engage youth in communities across the nation. Full-time AmeriCorps members devote a year of their life to a service position, working in diverse areas such as social services, education, emergency preparedness, and conservation. AmeriCorps members agree to work 1700 hours in exchange for a living stipend and an education award of $5,775 (before taxes).

There’s just one catch- the living stipend is simply not enough.

For example, in my position working as a literacy tutor for an elementary school, I earn a stipend of $15,000 during my 11-month contract- and that’s on the high end of AmeriCorps living stipends. Many programs provide between $10,000–12,000 per year to their full-time members. Even if you assume I only work the minimum number of hours, my hourly rate would be $8.82 per hour- lower than the $10.00 minimum wage in California, where I work. And while President Obama recently extended overtime eligibility to apply to salaried workers making up to $47,476, these rules don’t apply to AmeriCorps members.

Instead of providing a living wage to recent college graduates, AmeriCorps programs ask them to work for little pay while advertising access to food stamps as a benefit.

Some would argue that when the education award is added to the stipend, it makes the program more feasible. The education award is a great benefit, and it can help young people pay off student loans or save for future schooling. However, service members cannot use the grant money when they most need it- to pay for housing and food during their AmeriCorps service year.

AmeriCorps works well for those who already have grown up privileged. I’m a perfect example of this. I am lucky to be able to live with family members during my service year and to have parents who can pay (and are willing to pay) for some of my expenses, such as my healthcare. For me, the low pay AmeriCorps provides is a mild annoyance. For anyone without this privilege, however, it can be a deal breaker.

AmeriCorps’ low pay creates a barrier for people from low-income backgrounds, the very people who come from the communities that AmeriCorps is serving. Given the choice of taking a low paid service-oriented job in the community where they grew up or finding a job in the private sector, people will usually opt for the latter. Not because they don’t want to give back to their community or make a difference, but because they need to survive.

Of course, there are people who do AmeriCorps that don’t come from privileged backgrounds. Many of my coworkers are in this situation, and they are barely scraping by. Some of them are working full-time as AmeriCorps members while going to college. Others are working another part-time job on the weekends, bringing their total number of work hours to 60 hours a week or more. These AmeriCorps members who work so hard to better themselves and their country deserve to be paid a living wage.

Right now, AmeriCorps contributes to the problems in this country that it is trying to solve. It offers a career stepping stone for privileged youth who can afford to take a low-income job for a year in order to gain valuable experience and serve a low-income community, while leaving less advantaged Americans behind.

In 2016, the budget for the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that oversees AmeriCorps, was $1.1 million, an insignificant fraction of the $3.8 trillion budget. Our country can afford to provide AmeriCorps members with fair compensation for the work they invest in their communities. Moreover, higher living stipends for AmeriCorps members will ensure that all young Americans have the option of joining AmeriCorps, regardless of the income of their parents.

If President Obama wants AmeriCorps to be an engine of opportunity for youth, he and Congress need to work together to ensure AmeriCorps members are paid a living wage and are paid overtime for the extra hours they work. AmeriCorps needs to live up to its promise of “Getting Things Done for America” starting with the people it employs.