A University of California's Board of Regents' meeting unveiled a plan on Wednesday regarding a mandated hourly pay increase to $13 effective this October and to increase wages by one dollar every year for the next two years. This makes University of California the first public university system in the country to set its minimum wage at $15. This minimum wage increase is expected to affect 3,200 hourly employees throughout the system. The policy will include even the contractors, making its effect felt broader. It is expected to address the union complaints about employees being poorly treated by third-party companies.
"We wanted to plant the flag in the ground and say, 'This is not acceptable," said Dianne Klein, University of California spokeswoman, according to the Sacramento Bee.
Though many employees will benefit from this plan, the wage hike policy further gained various reactions from different sectors and unsatisfied critics.
"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. The University should be teaching engineering, not spending student dollars to practice social engineering by limiting who campuses can do businesses with," said Kristin Olsen, Assembly Republican Leader. "The bulk of this is non-state funded. It is not as though we are taking the money we assume we are getting from the state and giving it to minimum wage workers," according to the Sacramento Bee.
Presently, California's minimum wage is $9 per hour while the federal minimum hourly rate is $7.25. Opponents believe that this hike will result to less job opportunities. Employers will need to cut down employee population or limit the employees' working hours in order to afford the employees' compensation, as The Washington Post reported.
But Janet Napolitano, UC President and former secretary of the Homeland Security, believes that this is the right thing to do to enhance the university's leadership. Officials have already estimated the wage increase to $14 million a year making the university payroll rise to more than $12 billion, according to the New York Times.
