Graduate students at New York University's engineering school protested what they called unfair wages for work they do as researchers and assistants. They rallied with their union GSOC-UAW Local 2110, fast-food workers and elected officials to criticize inadequate wages and a lack of benefits.

“These hard-working employees deserve better wages, paid health care and a waiver of tuition costs because they have earned it,” said Public Advocate Letitia James at the rally outside the Manhattan Municipal Building on Wednesday.

James blasted NYU for failing to compensate student workers who contribute to the academic advancements made at its campuses. She said many students get further into debt paying the private university’s tuition, while the school gets wealthier from its undergrads' and grads’ advancements.

Students at the rally also protested the uneven pay for graduate assistants at NYU’s Manhattan campus and at the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering in Brooklyn. Students at the engineering school said they make less than $12 an hour on average, while graduate students at the Manhattan campus can make close to $32 an hour.

Aryeh Katz, a fourth year electrical engineering student, said his job at NYU Polytechnic's prototype lab isn’t a low-skilled position.

"We have a lot of equipment that you really need to know what you're doing in order to use it," said Katz, who's paid $10 an hour.

Graduate student workers and NYU have been at impasse since December 2013. Though the students are unionized, they are currently working without a contract. Union director Julie Kushner said the union and the university have been trying to work out a contract.

“So far they have not put a proposal on the table that we can accept,” Kushner said. Part of the union’s demands included a $15 hourly wage and health benefits.

The union and university met hours after the rally to continue working on a contract, but no decisions were made during the meeting.

A spokesman for NYU said in a statement that the school is serious about giving students a fair contract and has "been bargaining in good faith," but the proposal by the union representing the student workers would cost roughly twice as much as the "substantial" raises and benefits NYU has offered.