PAY RAISES: UC will raise minimum wage to $15 an hour
BY MARK MUCKENFUSS
University of California President Janet Napolitano announced Wednesday, July 22, that the UC will follow a recent trend by raising the minimum wage of its workers to $15 an hour.
The change will take place in three stages over the next three years.
UC spokeswoman Kate Moser said the wage increase would affect about 3,200 full-time employees and “many thousands more contracted service workers.” It is expected to cost the UC system $14 million annually, Moser said.
UC Riverside spokeswoman Kris Lovekin said the wage increase would affect about 150 employees, most of whom are tutors or lab assistants.
Todd Stenhouse, a representative for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said the change would largely affect contract workers (UCR has few such employees). The employees his organization represents, he said, will not be affected, since few, if any, of them make less than $15 an hour.
Stenhouse said the move by Napolitano was a step in the right direction, but not much of one.
“It’s like telling hundreds, if not thousands of contract workers that instead of having to survive on breadcrumbs, now you get to survive on ramen noodles,” Stenhouse said. “It falls far short of the standards we set for equal pay for equal work.”
Few contract employees, he said, receive benefits.
“The gesture is a symbolic one,” he said.
Dubbed the Fair Wage/Fair Work Plan, the new rule requires university employees who work more than 20 hours per week to receive a minimum of $15 per hour. Currently, California’s minimum wage is $9. Napolitano’s plan would increase the minimum pay to $13 an hour on Oct. 1. It would go up an additional dollar on the same date in 2016 and 2017.
In a statement released by her office, Napolitano said the UC is the first public university in the country to establish a $15 per hour minimum wage. She called it “the right thing to do – for our workers and their families.”
In recent months, more private companies and government agencies have been announcing pay increases to address a long-stagnant minimum wage that many workers say does not provide a living.
At least one California legislator criticized the move. Kristin Olsen, R-Modesto, is the Assembly GOP Leader.
“It is concerning that UC would implement this proposal just after spending an entire year arguing they do not have the funds necessary to keep tuition flat and enroll more California students,” Olsen said in a statement. “This action will result in even higher costs on students and parents, at a time when UC is already struggling to maintain affordability and student access.”
[Source]: The Press Enterprise
