On Aug. 18, 2025, Luther College announced a pay increase for all student workers, starting in the 2025-2026 school year. The announcement was sent to the college community through a Monday Message email from President Brad Chamberlain, written by Patti Hetrick, vice president for finance and administration.
The new student work wages represent an increase to reflect the changing labor market and the value of student employees. For regular positions, work wages range from $10 to $12 per hour. For essential and community positions (such as Dining Services and Federal Work Study), work wages range from $10.50 to $13.00 per hour. For student research positions, work wages range from $10.50 to $12.50 per hour. Matthew Bills, human resources director, explained the reasoning behind this new change.
“Human Resources conducted a survey of student employment wages at peer institutions and wage levels in our local labor market,” Bills said. “We translated that market data into a multi-level Luther Works wage framework. The increased student work wages better reflect the value that student employees bring to Luther’s campus.”
Despite the payment increase, overall student work budgets were not increased this year. Work supervisors were also notified about this change.
“Departments will have to reduce their overall student work hours,” Bills said. “But many departments do not usually spend their full student work budgets and thus have room to absorb some additional cost due to increased wages.”
“Departments concerned about having sufficient budgets should work with their budget manager and me to discuss possible solutions to those concerns,” Andrew Bailey, director of budgeting, financial planning and analysis, said.
Students have already been benefiting from the new wage increase since the start of the school year. Tran Nguyen (‘28), a student worker at Nordic Brew, offered some opinions on this new change.
“I think that [raising student worker wages] is really important, because [Luther] values being a tutor or [doing] research,” Nguyen said. ”Students who don’t have the privilege to study without worrying about their tuition being paid or not will finally have the opportunity to work in an area that they are interested in.”
The pay increase is a part of a long process of calculating the annual operating budget. This reflects Luther’s efforts to support student workers and maximize budgets. Bailey offered some more insights into this process.
“Compiling the operating budget for a fiscal year is a difficult task of prioritizing limited resources to maximize the student experience inside and outside of the classroom,” Bailey said. “During each budget cycle, we will continue to evaluate pay for all our employees. Actions taken will incorporate a variety of factors such as budget, market, demand and labor pool.”
If students are looking for work study positions, all work study positions are posted on the Handshake site. Students or employees with student pay rate questions should contact the Student Employment office at [email protected] or 563-387-1072.
