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Lisa Feldman of Orono is a University of Maine System retiree.

When I turned 70, I retired from the University of Maine System. It was a great place to work, but not the high road to riches. I’m typical. As a library worker, I had to be competent in customer service, record-keeping systems, and computer hardware and software fundamentals. I also had to understand the basics of relational database architecture, cataloguing rules and information literacy. It was clerical work, but not unskilled. There have been several raises since I retired. Yet, if I started work tomorrow, I’d make a dollar and change above minimum wage.

Whenever employees complained about skimpy pay, university system administrators objected that “compensation” consisted of benefits as well as salary.