Less than 2 percent of UC employees will be affected by the university’s new minimum wage — 1.6 percent to be exact. And according to the UC Office of the President media representative Kate Moser, 1.6 is a serious, significant number.
The other 98.4 percent, however, will continue to be paid whatever wages their employers assign them. A lot of these folks already make more than $13, which is great. However, the remaining 98.4 percent are those who will be paid less than this minimum wage because they work fewer than 20 hours every week, the “aha!” feature of UC President Janet Napolitano’s plan.
Oftentimes, if not most of the time, these workers don’t choose to work less. Instead, their employers don’t allow them to work more, or they are students who simply don’t have the time to do so. Therefore, under the new “Fair Work, Fair Pay” plan, workers who are scheduled for the fewest hours will also likely earn less money per hour that the system allows them to work. Despite this, UCOP considers itself to be the top leader in blazing the wage-raising trails.
“With this change, the [University of California] is a leader in the national effort to establish a fair minimum wage,” Moser said.
This may have a grain of truth, but unfortunately you can’t really lead a fleet that hasn’t fully taken off, especially when your plane is cruising at the height of a two-story doll house.
Now, one might argue that we should be happy that someone’s getting a wage increase at all and that we’re taking one progressive step in the right direction.
Yes, genuinely, we celebrate for the 1.6 percent, the 3,200 employees who will deservedly reap the benefits of the $13-per-hour wage, just as Napolitano celebrates as she reaps the publicity benefits that the dozens of articles praising her misleading policy provide her. However, we cannot stop to celebrate every time administrators throw us a treat that only feeds a small number of us.
“We as students cannot allow ourselves to believe it is an ultimate victory for us,” A.S. Vice President of External Affairs Krystl Fabella told the UCSD Guardian. “The wording of the policy and who it is applicable to explicitly excludes students and is an easy way out for President Napolitano to strike a national headliner.”
Indeed, once again, Napolitano gained lots, while the students gained naught. In these instances, everyone always seems to demand that change and justice stroll in one minor step at a time, as if getting slapped more softly is less insulting.
“Moving forward means holding President Janet Napolitano accountable when she releases a statement that very explicitly and almost shamelessly states its priority of ‘becoming the first public university in the United States to voluntarily establish a minimum wage of $15,’” Fabella said.
Why aren’t we doing that — holding our officials accountable? Though we should cheer for those who did receive a raise, we should simultaneously boo — loudly and uncompromisingly — at those who prevented the rest from getting it. If we don’t, our pockets will continue to be empty and our heads will continue to shake disappointingly at the fact that we’re not one of the 1.6 percent.
