Underemployment—what exactly is it? Simply, it’s finding oneself working below their skill level. Or, working a job that is paying less than they’re worth. Just to be clear, let me define what it’s not. It’s not someone working a job below their skill level when they want that because it’s easier and less stressful. It’s not someone working a job below their skill level because they are young and just haven’t had a chance to prove themselves. It’s not about someone who hasn’t put in the effort to find an appropriate job. It’s also not about someone who has skills, but those skills just aren’t valuable in the market. It’s about someone who has worked hard, has valuable skills, but can’t find a job that uses those skills and/or pays them properly.
It’s a Key Feature of the American Economic System
How is employment viewed by those on the top of our system? I don’t mean a middle or upper manager that may be someone’s boss. I mean those that own the corporations and have all the wealth. It also applies to C-level executives, because they answer to the owners. To them, employees are viewed as liabilities on a profit and loss statement. I know, because I’ve had jobs where I’ve been treated like a liability.
Let’s consider a real life example. Years ago I worked at a for-profit college called Bohecker College. I don’t mind mentioning their name, because the college is now defunct. So, I’m not hurting anyone’s feelings. When I first hired in, I spoke with the Director of Education, who hired me to teach some classes and expressed that the company may hire me full-time down the road. He forgot to mention that their business model was based around hiring part-time faculty. I was left with the impression that if I performed well, the company would likely hire me full-time, which was a lie.
Within several months I had become a key member of the faculty. It was fairly common for me to spend 20-25 hours a week in direct teaching duties (primarily teaching a class or sometimes tutoring). That didn’t include significant time spent outside of class in preparation, grading, coordinating events with staff, record keeping, and other responsibilities. During my time there I was awarded two significant teaching awards—one that was nominated by the students and the other that was nominated by the administration.
While I was a full-time faculty member in terms of my teaching load, responsibilities, and level of performance, I was being paid part-time and had no benefits. I worked there for about four years. The promise of being hired full-time was never realized. And, I wasn’t the only faculty member overlooked. Near the end of my time there, the college was functioning without a librarian, didn’t have needed student services (like a math and writing lab), and was functioning with nearly all classes being taught by part-time instructors. I worked there from 2004-2008. At the time students told me they were paying around $12-15,000 a year working on two-year degrees. So, the money was definitely there to hire a core group of full-time instructors, a librarian, and proper support staff.
The company managed to find the funds to build a modern new building. But, paying and treating employees correctly wasn’t even considered. Why is that? Well, a piece of property is an appreciable asset on a profit and loss statement. Employees are liabilities. Those at corporate ran things like sociopaths guided by greed and a reckless disregard for the needs of students. I was a burnt out husk when I left.
I was young at the time. So, one may say I was just paying my dues. It was easy to think that at the time, but the more people I’ve talked to about employment, and the more I’ve struggled with underemployment, I’ve come to realize these types of situations are chronic features of the American economy. Employees are nothing more than liabilities to those making the key decisions.
Human Resources Isn’t Helping
In 2008 I began taking some doctoral classes in Education at Kent State University. I found I was good at teaching, but I wasn’t being paid and treated properly. So, I did what was logical. I considered getting a Ph.D. That would put me on the top of the education food chain with better employment options. I learned that being a tenured professor isn’t primarily about teaching. It’s about academic research and writing. There’s a phrase bantered around, “Publish or perish.” I was neck deep into academic journals and I found I hated academic research and writing. I wasn’t wired like a researcher. I was wired like an artist. So, I needed to pivot and consider working outside of the college system.
At this point, I had a bevy of leadership, management, writing, speaking, content creation, and creative skills. But, I was also carrying an anchor around my neck. My employment history was in education. And, “Those that can’t teach.” I was finding it hard to pivot, because no one would give me a chance.
During my journey, I spoke with someone who was an employment specialist. I told him that I felt human resources, which is the gatekeeper to many jobs, is averse to risk taking. No matter what someone’s skills, HR play it safe and will go with someone with lesser skills, but years of experience. That way, if the person doesn’t work out, at least on paper it looks like they made a viable decision. He confirmed I was correct.
But, what does that mean? In practical terms it means that someone that has taken an “entry level” job, put in their dues, worked hard, and is making the correct career adjustments, may end up running into a brick wall. The system is designed for someone to climb a given ladder. If you find out you’re on the wrong ladder, you’ll have a hard time jumping to another ladder.
Just Find Another Job
When I hear someone say, “Well, just find another job”, I want to pummel them to within inches of their life. They say it so flippantly—like it’s an easy thing to find another job. I’ve applied to thousands of jobs in my search. And, I don’t mean that figuratively. Years ago I was tracking all the jobs I had applied to on an Excel spreadsheet. I was well over a thousand when I stopped tracking. It was too mentally taxing to see that number climb. I do have a system to track job applications, but the spreadsheet with the big number of rejections had to go.
Some people are lucky. They exited high school or college and stepped on the right career ladder. Somewhere along the way they were given a chance or a few chances. My experience (as well as many others I’ve spoken with) is finding the right open door in our American economic system is rare. I’ve even gone back and gotten more schooling on top of my Master’s degree. I have the skillset, but no one is willing to open the door. After having thousands of doors slammed in my face, I’m beat down. I know I’m not alone.
After Bohecker, I ended up working at another for-profit college. My experience was similar and perhaps even worse. It was a revolving door for faculty and students suffered. I saw the lack of needed services (like library and tutoring). I was making an effort to get out of the system, but wasn’t finding a path out. It was easy to think my time at Bohecker College was a fluke, but my second experience with a for-profit college convinced me it wasn’t chance. While there may be some good for-profit colleges out there, many are simply there to take advantage of students.
While I was discouraged, I never lost my concern for students. I talked with them. Many of them came from broken situations—which included family issues, social issues, education issues, employment issues, or similar problems. It’s easy to see people struggling and think it’s their fault. Honestly, with some of my students, it was their fault. They had made bad choices and were suffering the consequences. But, in many cases, it wasn’t their fault. They were facing hardships due to systemic societal issues. Talking with my students helped confirmed that the employment problems I was facing wasn’t just me. It was affecting many people. Underemployment is a chronic feature of the American economic system.
You’re Not a Contractor
Start looking through job ads and you’ll see the terms “contract”, “independent contractor”, “contractor”, or similar. What exactly does that mean? Basically, it means the company is not going to treat you with the respect of an employee. They’re not going to offer any benefits. They’re not going to take out taxes or pay their fair share of taxes. And, they’re going to expect you to run everything like a fully functional business without covering any of your expenses.
To be fair, there are relationships where this is beneficial to both parties. For example, a company may hire a plumber to install new fixtures in their bathroom. The plumber does the job, is paid, and moves on to the next job. The plumber is not a permanent part of the company’s business.
However, when an employee is a permanent part of a business, but is not treated like they are, this harms the employee. And, in many cases it’s illegal. Be aware that I’m using the term “employee” in the way the average person would view it—not in the legal sense some companies use terms to skirt treating people correctly.
Let me give an example. I was working for Liberty University teaching online Speech Communication classes. I don’t mind naming names, because Liberty is one of the largest Christian universities in the world. They hold their students and employees to a high standard of Biblical conduct. And, Liberty has a law department, so any decisions on employment matters isn’t made out of ignorance. It’s only reasonable to assume Liberty would run things in a manner that met the highest standards of the law and treated people with integrity. To be fair, many of the people I worked with at Liberty were sterling examples of Christian conduct. So, I’m pointing fingers at those that made decisions concerning employment status.
As a teacher of online classes, I was classified as an independent contractor. When I had to file taxes for the first time under that classification, I found out I faced a crushing tax bill. Being considered 1099 (which is the form companies send people classified as independent contractors), none of my taxes had been taken out. And, Liberty had not paid their half of taxes on my behalf.
Facing a huge tax bill, I had to figure out how to mitigate the damage. So, I began some research to see what I could do. I’m not going to bore you with all the details or try to give you legal definitions or advice. I’m going to speak as a layperson, because that’s what I was facing dealing with complex issues with the IRS. I found if someone is a regular part of the operations of a business and/or the company tells them how to perform their duties, they are legally considered an employee. Liberty’s key business was education and I was teaching, so I was a regular part of business operations. I had to follow procedures, a syllabus, a course calendar, report to supervisors, and do other things one would associate with being a regular employee. So, according to how the IRS defined things, I felt I should have been classified as an employee.
I filed paperwork with the SS-8 division of the IRS. They found I was misclassified. My tax burden was lessened. I assume they went after Liberty to pay for taxes I no longer owed, but I have no way of knowing for sure. The decision on my behalf was a hallelujah moment, but the IRS is a huge organization and the system isn’t designed to properly deal with misclassification. So, even though I won the tax battle and was properly classified, I was dealing with the IRS for years to clear things up.
Why would Liberty misclassify me? It certainly fell short of measuring up to Biblical values. It certainly had nothing to do with Liberty lacking funds. They were able to classify me correctly when the IRS presumably sat on them. Plus, they were able to pay upper level management high salaries and own a good portion of real estate in Lynchburg, Virginia. It really came down to the decision makers tossing aside the Bible in favor of viewing an employee as a liability. If a “Christian” university can’t treat employees correctly, it suggests the system is broken.
We’re Being Underpaid
In our current economic system the goal for employers is to hire as few people as possible and pay them as little as possible. A properly functioning economic system would have the opposite goals—to pay people as much as reasonably possible and to employ as many people as reasonably possible. However, wage and income inequality is out of control in our country. But, how much are people being underpaid?
It’s virtually impossible to know the exact number. Employers aren’t going to be straight with employees about how much money the employee is making for the company. If they were, there would be a revolution. I’ve only had one job where I had some knowledge of how my pay matched up with my value.
I was working in the weigh and inspection department for a major trucking company. My job was to inspect freight and see if companies had misclassified their freight to receive a lower rate. It was a frequent occurrence, which is a symptom of a system set up to maximize profits even if that disregards operating with integrity. I reported misclassifications and recorded it in a computerized system. I was able to see the huge sums of money I was recovering for the company. It came in huge sums—five thousand here, forty thousand there, twenty thousand with this account. It would have likely added up to a million dollars on a yearly basis and was easily into the high six figures. So, you’d expect I was well paid. But, I wasn’t. I was a temporary employee without any benefits making around $1,800 a month. I was only being paid a single-digit percentage of the amount of money I was making for the company.
With C-level salaries rising, shareholders’ profits soaring, and the wage gap increasing, I can only assume my experience is representative of many jobs. In our economy, the main way to make money is to start with money. But, the average person only has their work to exchange for wages. It’s a system that is rigged against the average worker—who must suffer not because the money isn’t there, but because the money is being siphoned off by a greedy few who weren’t struggling to begin with.
Quiet Quitting
Since I’ve shared my experience working at a few for-profit colleges, you may wonder, “Did he ever quiet quit on teaching?” The answer is, “No.” The main reason is I was never able to stop caring about my students. However, honestly, if I would have been able to turn off my heart for students, I would have done it. After years of being underpaid, unappreciated, overworked, working multiple jobs, being mismanaged, and not having the proper support needed, I became frayed. I had less to give students. I was fortunately able to leave before all my soul had been drained, but eventually I would have had nothing to give. So, even though I didn’t quiet quit, I would have quiet quit if my heart would have allowed it. I fully appreciate why people do it.
A better explanation for quiet quitting is the phrase, “Acting your wage.” Employment should be a reciprocal relationship, where the employer shows a genuine concern for employees. When that’s not the case, people begin to give less. They set boundaries. They protect themselves because they have to. Those that can turn off their ability to care do. Those that can’t have no other choice than leave. When a business doesn’t care, the first employees that flee are the ones that do care. Because, it’s far less stressful to those that don’t give a damn.
I know employers will complain that people don’t want to work anymore. It’s simply not true. The COVID-19 pandemic caused people to reflect and put them under stress. Many people have come to a breaking point with employment. They’re only willing to care as much as their employers reciprocate. And, since many employers view employees through the lens of a liability on a profit and loss statement, that’s what they’re getting from their employees. Until employers start treating people like assets, they can’t expect employees to act like assets.
Where Have All the Unions Gone
Why did unions develop in the first place? Workers were getting the shaft and had no other choice but to band together and demand changes. I know as soon as I mention unions, there are those that think of all the problems with unions. Obviously, unions have a take-it-to-the-man attitude and their relationship with corporations are hostile. But, that’s because people have been backed into a corner and they’re forced to come out fighting. Unionization isn’t the problem. Unionization is a symptom of the deeper problem of toxic ownership and management.
I would love to see a strong union movement globally. Many employers will not do what is right unless forced to do so. Unions provide a more balanced power relationship between workers and management.
Things don’t function well when there’s friction between workers, owners, and management. However, even though unions function at the point of friction, unions didn’t cause the friction. It’s the abuses of ownership and management that causes the friction.
Summary
Chronic underemployment is a symptom of a diseased economic system. It’s an issue that many face. Long-term chronic underemployment takes a brutal toll on mental, emotional, social, spiritual, and physical health.
There are solutions. Workers’ rights need to be clearly defined and backed by powerful government regulations. Other countries have figured out how to provide people with essentials like maternity and paternity leave, guaranteed time off, medical care that functions for all, and far healthier relationships between workers, owners, and management. Wage inequality isn’t near as high globally as it is in the United States. The only reason things don’t function correctly for U.S. workers is the American economic system is based on meeting the greeds of the few instead of the needs of the many.
