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UMW's lowest-paid get a raise

UMW to raise salaries of lowest-paid employees

Date published: 1/28/2006

By MELISSA NIX

By MELISSA NIX

The lowest-paid workers on the University of Mary Washington campus will soon find a bit more in their paychecks.

UMW President William Anderson has reversed his earlier decision to wait until March to review a proposed increase.

Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Richard Hurley said the reversal was possible because of positive financial news.

"The governor released his budget, and it has very favorable allocations proposed for the university," Hurley said. "We've since been monitoring the legislature, and we don't get the sense that anyone wants to take away any of the funds for higher education. We decided we needed to do this sooner rather than later. All those things we didn't know about in November."

For all full-time and part-time employees in the lowest pay band, the base rate will rise from $8.72 to $9.16 an hour. Full-time employees will see that rate go into effect on March 10; part-time employees on March 20, according to a UMW statement released Friday.

At present, the university's full-time custodians earn the lowest wage on campus--$18,067, or $8.72 an hour. About 25 workers earn that salary, and half have worked for the university longer than seven years.

One worker earning that salary has been at the university for 16 years, according to UMW Human Resources data released to the Ad-Hoc Committee on Compensation Issues.

Starting salaries for custodians will increase to $19,094. Entry-level groundskeepers, who earn close to that figure now, will see their hourly rate increase to $10.67 an hour, or $22,118 annually.

The increases will bring those salaries in line with those of Stafford County employees in comparable jobs.

Members of the Living Wage Coalition, a group of 10 to 15 student activists, have kept the pressure on school officials to pay workers a living wage. They circulated petitions, demonstrated on campus and even took over the vice president's office last spring to draw attention to their cause.

Since then, they have sent scores of letters to Anderson's office every day, said Patrick McGowan, a coalition member.

This week, they passed out fliers at each presidential candidate forum and asked each candidate about living wage issues during question-and-answer periods.

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Date published: 1/28/2006