This survey has 7 required questions and takes less than 5 minutes to complete. There are 3 optional questions at the end.
This coming Spring 2026, UAW 4121 Postdocs will be negotiating for our next contract. A major issue is our minimum salary, which is currently at $68,460 (see Section 32.2 of our contract). According to Washington State law, salaried workers must be eligible to receive overtime pay if they are paid less than $77,968.80 in 2025. This threshold will increase to $80,168.40 in 2026 and $91,468.00 in 2027. UW has created two tiers of postdocs, and only one tier is eligible for overtime: whether a postdoc is eligible or not depends both on their pay and job title.
Postdoctoral Scholar: if you are paid less than the threshold, you are overtime eligible and must track the amount of hours you work. However, this form of labor tracking is incompatible with the rhythm and timing of scientific research, which requires our attention at odd and extended hours. Many postdocs are being asked to avoid reporting more than 40 hours of work in a week, despite working longer hours.
Postdoctoral Scholar-Fellow/Paid Direct: if you are on a fellowship/paid directly from an external agency, you are not overtime eligible. Therefore, even if you work over 40 hours a week, there is no viable means of being compensated for your additional labor.
This current situation enables postdoc labor to not be adequately compensated, which is a form of wage theft. To gauge the extent of this wage theft, we are asking you to answer this brief survey. Your answer is unique and confidential.