Over the years, California community college districts have increasingly turned to part-time adjunct faculty to meet their mission of educating students. Adjunct faculty teach up to 75 percent of all community college classes in some districts. Adjunct faculty are required to hold the same minimum qualifications as their full-time faculty counterparts but are deemed temporary and have little job security. Community colleges also generally compensate adjunct faculty at a much lower rate than full-time faculty, sometimes even failing to pay adjunct faculty for the many hours of essential work that they do outside of the classroom on behalf of their employers.

As a result of these widespread and unfair compensation practices by community college employers, adjunct faculty across the state desperately struggle financial ly to make ends meet, despite their advanced academic degrees, professional duties, and many years of teaching experience. These compensation practices are not only a form of economic exploitation, but they may also violate California’s minimum wage laws. After a detailed investigation, in April 2022 CTA filed a lawsuit against Long Beach City College District, Roberts, et. al. v. Long Beach Community College District, for its failure to comply with minimum wage laws.

Under California’s applicable minimum wage laws, adjunct faculty who earn less than $5,200/month (in 2022) from a public employer are not exempt from the state’s minimum wage requirements. That is so regardless of the number of hours that the employee works. Therefore, community college districts are required to pay these non-exempt adjunct faculty at least the $15/hour state minimum wage for every hour worked — not only for classroom lecture hours, but for all hours engaged in work on behalf of districts.

For Long Beach City College District (LBCCD) adjunct faculty, this means a legal right to be paid at least the minimum wage for the hours they have spent preparing class syllabi, grading student work, holding office hours, communicating with students outside of the classroom about instructional matters, conducting administrative tasks, and attending employer-mandated trainings. The local union chapter of adjunct faculty at LBCCD, the Certificated Hourly Instructors, has been fighting for many years at the contract bargaining table to negotiate compensation for out-of-classroom work for their bargaining unit members. Thus far, LBCCD has stubbornly refused to comply with their legal obligations under state law. LBCCD insists on paying part-time faculty an hourly rate only for the time that educators spend in front of the classroom, without paying anything for the work they perform outside the classroom.

On April 4, 2022, CTA filed a class action wage-and-hour lawsuit against LBCCD in Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of more than 650 LBCCD adjunct faculty. The lawsuit seeks the maximum damages of three years back pay and the unpaid retirement benefits owed for uncompensated work hours, as well as penalties and interest.

Two longtime LBCCD adjunct faculty members, Karen Roberts and Seija Rohkea, have stepped up to serve as class representatives in the lawsuit. Their experiences of not being paid for essential work they do on behalf of LBCCD and its students are illustrative of the stories of the entire LBCCD adjunct faculty community. “It’s long past time for adjunct faculty to be treated fairly and compensated for all the work that goes into teaching a community college class,” said Rohkea, an art history instructor at Long Beach City College.

LBCCD’s refusal to comply with minimum wage laws is emblematic of a broader, pervasive pattern of exploiting adjunct faculty throughout the community college system. The lawsuit will raise public awareness about the challenging work conditions facing part-time adjunct faculty as contingent workers. CTA continues to investigate other community college districts for similar wage-and-hour violations. In addition, CTA,
our Community College Association (CCA), and allies have pushed for legislation intended to provide pay parity to part-time faculty. Ultimately, it will take a multi-pronged strategy of legal advocacy, organizing, further legislative pushes, and the building of political will in the state to bring economic justice to valuable community college faculty members who are doing the essential work of educating so many Californians.

York Chang is a CTA Staff Attorney.