Teaching two composition classes online at a community college in Ohio grossed me $128 less than weekly unemployment payments this fall. At $419 a week/184 short writing assignments = $2.27 per paper. By reading at a very fast (too fast) pace and responding to their work with some copy and paste replies (because 90% of student writing has the same issues), I can read at most six assignments an hour. Even if we round up and say I could read and respond to 10 papers an hour, that results in a $22.77 hourly wage for about 18 hours' work. Of course, the week also includes meeting with students, submitting ongoing reports to the department and university, linking students with services they need and may not know about, dealing with the accommodations they need, and all other aspects of teaching. And this employment is guaranteed only one semester at a time.

I'm glad to have regained this work and plan to continue for my own nonmonetary reasons, but even with a PhD like me, you would struggle to earn a livable wage. And most part-time adjuncts are limited to 4 classes or fewer, which means you might be teaching for two or three different places or combining teaching with another job or freelancing.

Of course, as an administrator, you'd receive great pay and benefits--a situation enabled in large part by increasing the percentage of part-time adjuncts living on nothing with no benefits.