Harvard Raises Wage Offer, Expands Benefits as Grad Student Strike Enters Second Week

Harvard increased its wage offer and proposed a new package of graduate student benefits Tuesday, marking the first major movement at the bargaining table since the Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers launched an indefinite strike last week.

The offer, announced in an email to faculty, would raise salaried student worker compensation by 11 percent over four years — up from Harvard’s previous 10 percent proposal. The raises would include a 2.75 percent increase upon ratification, a 3.25 percent increase on July 1, and 2.5 percent raises at the start of each of the following two academic years.

The offer still falls short of the union’s wage proposal, which has called for a 12 percent increase to base salaries upon ratification followed by 5 percent raises each year of the contract — a structure that would result in significantly larger cumulative pay increases than Harvard’s latest offer.

Harvard also proposed giving salaried HGSU-UAW members access to a subsidized legal services plan, including immigration-related legal services, at the same rate offered to Harvard’s full-time employees.

In a broader benefits package, Harvard said it would fully subsidize preventive dental insurance for Ph.D. students beginning in the 2026-27 academic year, replacing the current 75 percent subsidy. The University also announced a new parental benefit stipend for at least $6,500 per family for Ph.D. student parents, in addition to the existing stipend which totaled nearly $7,500 for the 2025-26 academic year.

The offered dental and parental benefits partially align with union proposals. Harvard’s move to fully subsidize dental insurance meets the union’s demand for a 100 percent subsidy. On childcare, the union’s proposal would provide between $3,500 and $16,000 annually per child for eligible workers, with higher payments for larger or lower-income families, while Harvard’s plan offers a flat annual stipend but is more expansive in its inclusion of all Ph.D. student parents.

HGSU-UAW has also asked Harvard to raise annual funding for benefit pools from $2.75 million to $3.6 million and shift administration of the funds to an independent trust.

The proposal would also expand emergency funds for international students and add funding to school-based hardship funds. Harvard framed the changes as an effort to shift benefits away from union-administered pools and toward student-based programs available regardless of whether a graduate student is currently working in a union-covered appointment.

That shift responds to one of the union’s stated concerns: that graduate workers often move in and out of the bargaining unit as their appointments change, making access to existing benefit funds inconsistent.

But it also leaves unresolved several of HGSU-UAW’s central contract demands, including stronger protections for non-citizen workers and an agency shop provision, which were not discussed during the meeting.

Tuesday’s movement comes after more than a year of bargaining and one week after HGSU-UAW began its third strike since winning recognition. Union members voted earlier this month to authorize a strike with 95.8 percent support, citing Harvard’s refusal to move on wages, noncitizen worker protections, and independent arbitration in harassment and discrimination cases.

Harvard and HGSU-UAW are scheduled to meet for additional bargaining sessions on May 14, May 29, June 9, and June 23.

—Staff writer Noah A. Ferris can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @noahaferris.