Lawsuit Investigation: Do RAs Get Paid Proper Minimum Wage, Overtime?
Last Updated on October 21, 2026
At A Glance
- This Alert Affects:
- People who have worked as resident advisors or resident assistants (RAs) at colleges or universities in certain states during certain timeframes.
- What’s Going On?
- Attorneys working with ClassAction.org are looking into whether resident advisors and RAs who live and work on campus at colleges or universities are being paid proper minimum and overtime wages in accordance with state laws.
- How Could a Minimum Wage Lawsuit Help?
- If filed and successful, class action lawsuits could help affected resident advisors and RAs recover any unpaid wages they may be owed and potentially force schools to modify their pay practices.
- What You Can Do
- If you worked as a resident advisor or RA at a college or university in one of the states listed below and didn’t receive your state’s minimum wage in addition to credit for room and board, attorneys are interested in speaking with you. Fill out the form on this page to help the investigation.
Attorneys working with ClassAction.org are investigating whether class action lawsuits can be filed on behalf of resident advisors and resident assistants (RAs) employed on college or university campuses who may not have been paid properly.
Specifically, they want to speak with RAs who lived and worked at schools in the following states during the following timeframes:
- New Jersey in the past six years
- Illinois in the past three years
The attorneys believe that although resident advisors and RAs often get paid via compensation packages that include certain stipends or credit for room and board (depending on the school), some advisors may be getting illegally shorted on minimum and overtime wages for the hours they work.
Class action lawsuits filed on behalf of RAs could help them get back any unpaid wages they may be owed and potentially force their school to ensure that its pay practices line up with state and federal labor law.
Did you work as a resident advisor, resident assistant or in a similar role at a college or university in one of the states listed above? Fill out the form on this page to get in touch and learn more about the investigation.
State Minimum Wage Laws
Although the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, some states have their own higher minimum wage. In cases where an employee is covered by both federal and state minimum wage laws, their employer must pay them the higher rate.
The attorneys believe certain colleges and universities may be violating their state’s minimum wage laws by paying RAs in the form of benefits that fail to meet the state minimum. Below is a summary of the minimum wage laws for the states they are looking into.
New Jersey Minimum Wage Law
As of January 1, 2026, the New Jersey minimum wage is $15.92 per hour, up from last year’s hourly rate of $15.49. According to the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL), most workers in the state have to be paid the minimum wage. Only certain types of employees are exempt from minimum wage protection under the law, including certain kinds of salespeople and minors under 18 (unless they work in retail, food service or the hotel and motel industry, among other occupations).
New Jersey’s minimum wage has increased incrementally since new legislation went into effect in July 2019. The New Jersey minimum wage is set to increase to $16.48 per hour on January 1, 2027.
Illinois Minimum Wage Law
Illinois law requires that most workers who are 18 or older must be paid a guaranteed minimum wage of $15.00 per hour, which was raised from $14.00 per hour in January 2025. However, employees who do not receive tips may be paid $14.50 per hour for the first 90 days with their employer.
In some parts of Illinois, the minimum wage is even higher. For instance, the minimum wage in Cook County is $15.40 per hour as of July 1, 2026, and the minimum wage in Chicago was increased to $17.05 as of July 1, 2026 for employers with four or more employees.
How Much Should RAs Get Paid for Overtime?
Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, a covered employee’s overtime rate is one-and-a-half times their regular rate of pay for each hour worked in excess of 40 per workweek.
Although some states have stricter overtime laws than the federal standard, such as daily overtime triggers, all covered employers in the U.S. must at least follow the federal overtime regulations.
The U.S. Department of Labor explains that a worker’s regular rate is their average hourly rate per pay period, including all compensation they earned during that time, with certain exceptions. Because an employee’s overtime rate is determined by their regular rate of pay, receiving an improper minimum wage could throw off overtime wage calculations and result in the worker getting underpaid.
The attorneys working with ClassAction.org suspect that some colleges and universities could be illegally paying RAs at a lower overtime rate than they are entitled to or not paying them overtime at all.
How Could a Lawsuit Help?
If filed and successful, class action lawsuits could help affected resident advisors and RAs recover any unpaid wages they may be owed. Unpaid wages and overtime lawsuits may also potentially force colleges and universities to bring their pay practices in line with applicable labor laws.
College RAs: Think You’re Getting Underpaid?
If you worked as a resident advisor or RA at a college or university in one of the states mentioned above and suspect you weren’t paid properly, fill out the form on this page.
After you get in touch, an attorney or legal representative may reach out with some questions and information about how you can help the investigation. It doesn’t cost anything to fill out the form or speak with someone, and you’re not obligated to take legal action if you decide not to.
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