Student Budget and Wages

At a meeting earlier this month, the Executive Committee reviewed the student budget requests for next fiscal year. Because of the need to reduce the operating budget, we made the decision to reduce all allocations by 5%. In addition, units will have to absorb an increase in the mandatory minimum wage from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour. We estimate that this increase costs the Libraries more than $60,000 which, unfortunately, will have to be absorbed by the division budgets as well as the 5% reduction. As a result, we have determined that we cannot sustain the usual longevity increases for students who have worked for the Libraries for more than two semesters. Those students will see an increase in their base paid up to $7.25, but no longevity increases.