“Fair Work, Fair Pay Act”: This PR Stunt Doesn’t Help Students

by UCSD Guardian Editorial Board

Less than 2 percent of UC employees will be affected by the university’s new minimum wage — 1.6 percent to be exact. And according to the UC Office of the President media representative Kate Moser, 1.6 is a serious, significant number.

The other 98.4 percent, however, will continue to be paid whatever wages their employers assigns them. A lot of these folks already make more than $13, which is great. However, the remaining 98.4 percent are those who will be paid less than this minimum wage because they work fewer than 20 hours every week, the “aha!” feature of UC President Janet Napolitano’s plan.

Oftentimes, if not most of the time, these workers don’t choose to work less. Instead, their employers don’t allow them to work more, or they are students who simply don’t have the time to do so. Therefore, under the new “Fair Work, Fair Pay” plan, workers who are scheduled for the fewest hours will also likely earn less money per hour that the system allows them to work. Despite this, UCOP considers itself to be the top leader in blazing the wage-raising trails.

“With this change, the [University of California] is a leader in the national effort to establish a fair minimum wage,” Moser said.

This may have a grain of truth, but unfortunately you can’t really lead a fleet that hasn’t fully taken off, especially when your plane is cruising at the height of a two-story doll house.

Now, one might argue that we should be happy that someone’s getting a wage increase at all and that we’re taking one progressive step in the right direction.

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[Source]: UCSD Guardian