
Graduate students face alarming tax hike - lainon
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-05925-6
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pm90
Its comically frustrating just how incompetent the current administration and
the Republican Party seems to be. Bill Gates once said that US research
universities are one of the best, and it would be very hard to fuck them up
(I'm paraphrasing). This might just be one step in that direction.

As a former Graduate Student: you live very much close to poverty. The
University provides a small stipend which covers essential expenses.
Basically, you put up with the low wages because you love your research and
are basically engaged in research all the time (i.e. you generally do not have
a life). This tax hike will likely reduce that stipend and make life even more
difficult.

I won't address whether there is a glut of graduate students; that is an
interesting and separate issue. But the fact remains that US univ. have done a
pretty great job of attracting the smartest people over the world to come here
and engage in research.

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jostmey
Universities charge students large tuition fees and then pay the students very
large salaries. After the tuition is subtract, the students make very little.
All the tuition is tax free.

Universities can easy fix this by just charging the students a tiny tuition
fee so that the students new tax burden is minuscule? The money paid to the
graduate students _could_ be the same (very little).

So what's the problem? Is it that Universities route money through the
graduate student accounts to avoid paying taxes on it and now they are upset
that their tax loophole might be closed?

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quxbar1
If you charge a tiny tuition, and pay less than minimum wage, there's no
reason for the student to work it off with the university. They're better off
getting a job at Wal-mart. The reason this system is popular is that it
provides a class of cheap, skilled labor in exchange for continuing education.

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santaclaus
What is to stop Universities from simply setting a super low tuition for
funded PhD students to work around this?

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dragonwriter
Minimum wage laws, including the parts prohibiting unpaid work benefiting the
employer, and setting minimum salaries for paid positions to be exempt from
usual overtime, rest period, etc., requirements.

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benjohnson
If the laws are just, then we should apply the protections offered by these
laws to all workers.

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sctb
Previous discussions:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15622544](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15622544)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15654594](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15654594)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15655952](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15655952)

