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UofM incrementally raising wages of campus workers

<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><strong>Howard Covington, a University of Memphis dining services employee, stocks drinks in the University Center. Covington has worked for the University for 37 years.</strong></span></p>
Howard Covington, a University of Memphis dining services employee, stocks drinks in the University Center. Covington has worked for the University for 37 years.
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Prentice Braswell Jr., a custodial employee for the University of Memphis, sweeps the third floor of the University Center. Braswell has been an employee of the University for 10 years. 

Many of the University of Memphis campus workers are not paid a living wage, meaning they cannot live off of their salary.

Jayanni Webster, organizer for United Campus Workers, said the union wants to keep campus workers above the poverty line by raising the minimum wage.

“People deserve to be paid a wage that will help ensure that they can get out of poverty,†Webster said. “They need a wage that’s not going to keep them stuck in a cycle of impoverishment.â€

UCW, a union created to help campus workers earn a wage they can live off of, are helping UofM workers that are getting paid $10.80 an hour to increase their pay to $15 an hour. They aim to achieve this goal by 2020.

Webster said she believes higher wages are a way to ensure worker satisfaction and effectiveness.

“Wages are not the only way to support your employees, but it is a big factor in employee satisfaction and feeling valued on the job,†Webster said. “The union believes this fight to raise wages is about people’s dignity on the job.â€Â 

The UofM is raising workers’ wages incrementally to give them a living wage. The UofM aims to continue to raise wages without raising tuition, but Webster said she thinks there are other ways to increase wages.

“The union is opposed to raises coming from a tuition increase, that’s not something that we want to happen,†Webster said. “We encourage the university to ask for more state appropriation so that the UofM can receive more money to raise wages.â€

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Howard Covington, a University of Memphis dining services employee, stocks drinks in the University Center. Covington has worked for the University for 37 years.

Webster also said she thinks the wages across campus leads to inequality among workers.

“We also think the wage distribution on campus creates inequality,†Webster said. “If you are making $120,000 a year and you get a two percent raise, then that’s a lot more money than if you’re making $10.60.â€

Maragret Cook, a member of UCW, said the union does not want incremental raises for workers. 

“We don’t really believe incremental raises are necessary when other institutions have gone straight to the $15.†Cook said. “Employers like Amazon and Whole Foods have a living wage, and they were able to do it without incremental raise so we really feel like the university is in the position to do this now.â€

Ron Brooks, the assistant vice president of the physical plant at the UofM, said he thinks incremental raises are necessary for workers to earn a living wage.

“The only way we could do it without major budget increases would be to do it incrementally,†Brooks said. “The issue is when you raise the wages for the lowest paid employees, it creates a salary compression for everybody else, so we have to find a way to raise the lowest paid employees up to a living wage without the compression.â€

Brooks also said he thinks the wages cannot be raised over a short period of time without an increase in expenses for students.

“To do it over a very short time is going to be very tough unless we raise tuition,†Brooks said. “Obviously, the president doesn’t want to raise tuition and prices for students who are borrowing a lot of money to attend here.â€

Brooks said the UofM wants to raise wages for campus workers, but because of budgeting conflicts, it is unlikely they will do so in one action.

The UofM will continue its present course of incremental raises for now with no signs of immediate change coming from UofM President M. David Rudd.


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