LBCC Part-Time Faculty Win Wage Increase & Back Pay After Lawsuit | CHI Union Victory

Long Beach City College to Compensate Part-Time Faculty for Unpaid Work

Long Beach City College (LBCC) will begin compensating part-time faculty for all hours worked, following a landmark legal victory secured by the Certificated Hourly Instructors (CHI) Faculty Association. The ruling establishes that LBCC’s current pay rates have not met the minimum wage threshold for non-exempt employees.

The decision, reached after a lawsuit filed in 2022, will result in an average salary increase of 8.94% for part-time faculty across the salary schedule, with those at the lower end of the pay scale seeing increases exceeding 15%, retroactive to August 2025. This victory is in addition to a substantial settlement for back-owed wages that will be distributed in the coming months.

The lawsuit was initially brought by LBCC art professors Karen Roberts and Seija Rohkea, who served as class representatives for all adjunct faculty at LBCC. According to Roberts, the legal process was “a collective effort—nobody can be out here by themselves doing this,” emphasizing that the win belonged to all involved.

The court determined that LBCC was violating California minimum wage laws by not compensating part-time faculty for work performed outside of scheduled classroom hours. This includes time spent on lecture and lab preparation, syllabus design, grading, and administrative tasks. The ruling applies to all part-time community college faculty paid less than $5,720 per month in 2025.

CHI President Crystal Mejia-Huckabee stated that the association has “successfully contractualized the road to pay parity between full-time and part-time faculty at LBCC.” She added, “CHI is taking on the fight and making progress towards equal pay for equal work! This is only the beginning.”

The California Teachers Association (CTA) organized the class action lawsuit on behalf of all adjunct faculty at LBCC. The ruling is expected to have a significant impact on more than 40,000 adjunct faculty in community colleges statewide.

Judge Stuart M. Rice’s verdict opens the possibility for LBCC to provide back pay to adjunct professors dating back to 2019, though the college’s budget constraints may impact the full extent of that compensation. Roberts noted that the judge acknowledged LBCC was aware it was asking faculty to work outside of their teaching hours.

The legal challenge highlighted the financial struggles faced by many part-time faculty, who are often only compensated for instructional time. According to CHI Union President Crystal Huckabee, part-time professors are not compensated for office hours, grading, or other non-instructional work.

Eileen Goldsmith, a San Francisco labor lawyer representing the Long Beach plaintiffs, stated that the case proceeding to mediation after a judge denied a district motion to throw it out “is having a pretty substantial impact” in California, with some districts “looking at renegotiating their terms by which they’re paying adjunct faculty.”

A similar lawsuit was filed in Sacramento County in 2022, resulting in a March ruling that adjuncts working at colleges across the state are employees of the community college system’s board of governors. This decision could lead to standardized pay across the 116-college system, according to Dan Galpern, a lawyer for John Martin, the plaintiff in that case. Martin is also chair of the California Part-Time Faculty Association.