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U. Senate supports living wage

Catherine Couretas

The Miami University senate voted 22-19 Monday in favor of a resolution to support a living wage for Miami staff.

"I'm happy that this passed," said Mark Sawyer, vice president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). "I'm sure the union is happy with this too."

A living wage is the salary required to cover the basic cost of living, including housing and food.

The Students for Staff Living Wage Committee presented the university senate with a resolution at the Monday meeting. Graduate student Benjamin Kuebrich and senior Robert Winslow presented their ideas on how a living wage at Miami would cost much less than previously assumed.

Kuebrich explained that the Miami's human resources department approached the Associated Student Government (ASG) with the estimation that a living wage would cost nearly $15 million, with all hourly salaries increasing by more than $3 an hour.

The plan that Keubrich and Winslow presented will cost less than $4 million and increase all hourly salaries by less than $2 an hour.

Also, in a jobs-to-jobs comparison completed by the committee, Kuebrich displayed statistics from 2008 showing that Miami's starting salaries are one of the lowest when compared with other Ohio schools.

Richard Momeyer, philosophy professor and university senator, liked what the committee presented.

"The progressive change of institutions comes from the bottom, not the top," Momeyer said. "The students have done very good work in the research they're proposing to us. If Miami University does want to be a leader, we should lead by having policies that pay enough to every worker (so) that a family of two adults and two children with one wage-earner can meet those needs."

Student body president-elect Mike Scott and ASG senator Liz Bowe were concerned with both estimates since it was not made clear where the money was coming from to support the living wage.

However many university senate members immediately supported the proposal.

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"I think it would be good for us to take the moral high road and pass this resolution," said Sheldon Davis, a mathematics and statistics professor. "I think that in the short term it would be good for us to pass this."

Stephen Nimis, a professor of classics, agreed.

"I think that the administration should do the best they can in trying to make the best for everybody," Nimis said.

Senior Director of Human Resources Carol Hauser spoke to the senate as well, providing facts about employment at Miami compared with other public universities in Ohio as of the fall of 2007. This information included what Miami staff are being paid now.

"At Miami, we want to have competitive salaries," Hauser said. "Every two years, the university looks at the starting wages and entry level wages for classified staff and we line ourselves with those wages."

Hauser went on to explain that classified staff is paid by the hour, as opposed to unclassified staff that is not paid by the hour.

"We want our employers here to be able to have career paths," Hauser said. "We want to have a stable work force here at Miami."

Hauser continued to say that Miami does not have maximum salaries, using the example of some of the food service workers who make nearly $20 an hour.

"All of us prepare for our careers and we expect to make a salary in relation to certain things," Hauser said. "We expect our salary will be related to how we are prepared academically and how long we've been working."


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