This coming Spring 2026, UAW 4121 Postdocs will be negotiating for our next contract, alongside Research Staff.
In January of this year, many Postdocs at UW became overtime-eligible and had to begin tracking hours. The Postdoc-Scholar minimum salary at UW is $68,460–but the current threshold is $77,968.80 and will only increase to $80,168.40 on January 1, 2026 and $91,468.00 on January 1, 2027. (Postdoc-Fellows and -Paid Directs are not currently recognized by the University as overtime-eligible, and therefore are not asked to track hours.)
How is hours-tracking affecting you?
Take the hours-tracking survey
Postdocs across UW have told UW administration that hours-tracking doesn’t work for scientific research. Postdocs’ work requires attention at odd and extended hours. UW has had years to prepare for the rising overtime standard for salaried workers–a standard set by the people of Washington to ensure workers are paid fairly–but instead, they refused to provide proper guidance and preparation to labs, and have instead forced the burden onto individual PIs.
Participating in the survey is the first step to building a strong contract campaign–for higher wages, better job security and research continuity, and stronger protections for international workers. We protect each other, and this is only the beginning of our campaign for better working conditions! Reply to this email to learn how you can get involved with other postdocs to achieve the contract we all deserve.
In Solidarity,
Jacob Sacks, Computer Science and Engineering
Cassandra Henderson, Civil & Environmental Engineering
Winston Dredge, Genome Sciences
Mateo Lopez Espejo, Psychology
Haruki Hirasawa, Atmospheric and Climate Science