Count among the many things no one ever explained to me about academia: that postdocs awarded external fellowships are typically not employees of their host institutions. I am lucky to have won a postdoctoral fellowship; I work at Caltech, but I am not an employee of Caltech. My title is “postdoctoral scholar” and my pay is a “stipend” rather than a salary. Caltech pays no payroll taxes for me, and I am ineligible for standard employment benefits guaranteed by the federal government (e.g. pre-tax contributions to an employer sponsored 401K) or by the State of California (e.g. paid parental leave).

We live in a society where many important benefits are contingent on employment. I think most would agree that postdocs are employed in the colloquial sense. But we are not all employed in the technical sense and therefore many of us are ineligible for the basic protections and benefits of employment while, simultaneously, earning less than we would if we plied our trade outside the academy. Moreover, because these state and federal benefits have monetary value, we may earn tangibly less than we would if we didn’t win external fellowships. Yet we are encouraged explicitly, implicitly, and continually, to apply for fellowships that bring prestige to us, our mentors and institutions while diminishing our access to basic benefits of tangible financial consequence.

This is a stunningly indecent status quo, but one that is so ingrained in the norms of the academy that it is rarely discussed. Many people in my life encouraged me to apply for various fellowships, none of them made me aware of this problem. Many of them did not know. So here I am, making you aware.

So what is to be done about it? If you are considering a postdoc, find out which fellowships allow you to retain employment status. You will have to ask around - many potential mentors will not know the answer. This is especially important if you have children, or plan to have them during your postdoc. At Caltech, I’m told that postdocs on internal Caltech fellowships are employees of the Institute, for example. But the academy must find a way to make all postdocs employees, even if they are paid through external funds. This will require some pressure (read: postdoc unions) because it will cost fellowship programs and academic institutions in taxes and benefits (the “indirect costs” of decency). But we must be employees. Otherwise, any claims that academia is inclusive will remain forever farcically-caveated: inclusive of all people so long as they are childless, come from money, work a second job, or recently sold a startup.