All Worked Up investigates student labor and the factors that have contributed to the indebted, underpaid, and overworked, yet often ignored and maligned, status of Millennial college students. Students serve coffee, wait tables, attend to customers, give campus tours, assist in offices, conduct research, advise their peers, clean floors, and much more. On-campus, off-campus, earning a wage, earni
ng credit, or taking unpaid internships, most college students work during school. And what happens when they don’t? While a college degree is increasingly necessary to achieve social mobility, its rising costs mean more students need to seek employment to pay tuition and rent. Yet few entry-level and service jobs offer good wages, security, or positive working conditions, in large part because there is a constant surplus of student workers. Internships and assistantships only sometimes provide the valuable experience they promise. Today’s students are in debt, underpaid, and overworked. All Worked Up seeks to explore the lives of working college students, the factors that lead them to pursue work while in school, and the conditions of their labor. Our goal is to spark conversations among students, faculty, administrators, and policymakers about the roles and realities of undergraduate labor in U.S. higher education. It’s time to hear what student workers have to say.
