When tuition goes up, will students protest this decision?

The Huffington Post reported.

University Of California Raises Minimum Wage To $15

The movement to raise the minimum wage across the U.S. gained ground Wednesday with the huge University of California system announcing plans to increase base pay for its employees and contract workers to $15 an hour over the next two years.

The move follows similar steps by local governments to give employees what activists call a “living wage.” Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley have all approved phased-in increases that eventually will take their minimum wage to $15 an hour, or about $31,200 for a full-time job.

UC President Janet Napolitano said that as California’s third-largest employer, the university should be taking the lead in ensuring its lowest-paid workers make decent wages. UC has 10 campuses, including UCLA and Berkeley, nearly 240,000 students and a staff of 195,000.

“Our community does not exist in a vacuum. How we support our workers and their families impacts Californians who might never set foot on one of our campuses,” she said. “It’s the right thing to do.”

The university’s hourly wage earners – a group that includes students and full-time employees working in dining halls, dorms and bookstores or as gardeners, housekeepers and custodians at campuses and hospitals – currently make the state minimum of $9 an hour.

Napolitano said she will boost that to $13 in October for employees who work at least 20 hours a week and by $1 an hour in each of the next two years.


 
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