University of California president Janet Napolitano (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)The University of California will raise the minimum wage for employees and contractors to $15 an hour over the next three years, bringing it to more than double the federal level and plunging the public university system in to the thick of the political debate about worker pay.
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Under the plan, the new minimum wage will apply to direct university employees hired to work at least 20 hours a week, as well as all employees of university contractors.
The current California minimum wage is $9 an hour and is scheduled to rise to $10 an hour in January 2016. The UC system employs 195,000 people at an array of facilities, including 10 campuses, five medical centers and three national laboratories.
The UC move echoes similar recent actions by the Los Angeles City Council and Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
Klein says the wage increases will not affect tuition and will be taken care of by the system’s overall budget. UC said it also expects contractors will pass some of the cost of higher wages onto the university.
In Washington, D.C., meanwhile, election officials approved the language of a proposed ballot measure that would make the nation’s capital the first East Coast city to adopt a $15 minimum wage.
The university will also ensure that all contract workers are receiving at least the UC minimum wage, according to a UC press release.
“We have responsibility here to make sure our lowest-paid employees are earning a livable wage”, Napolitano said.
Napolitano said in a statement that the university “does not exist in a vacuum”.
The $15 minimum has become the rallying cry of labor groups nationwide who argue the base wage hasn’t kept up with inflation. The university will establish a hotline and an online complaint system, and will carry out annual and spot audits of its contractors.
The announcement was made at today’s UC Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco.
And as The Fix has noted, the insurance requirements under Obamacare have led colleges to cut student worker hours so they don’t qualify for school-provided insurance.
Klein said roughly 3,200 workers directly employed by the university, majority students, will benefit from the increase, in addition to thousands more contractors and subcontractors. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
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