As the clock on Healy Tower struck noon on the 10th day of a hunger strike that made national news and landed two participants in the hospital, 21 Georgetown students broke their fast and celebrated. President John J. DeGioia had just announced the adoption of a living wage policy for all University employees.
The announcement arrived in the form of a campus-wide e-mail from the President’s Office late on March 23.
“I firmly believe that the approval of this policy advances in important ways Georgetown’s continued efforts to provide a just, fair and competitive compensation system for our employees,” DeGioia wrote. He commended the students’ continued commitment to the issue, as well as the work of Senior Vice President Spiros Dimolitsas and his advisory board, throughout the negotiation process that began in 2002.
After repeatedly declining to speak with students during the hunger strike, the timing of the President’s letter came as a surprise to members of the Living Wage Coalition, the campus organization that spearheaded the wage campaign.
“We think the decision had to do with outside press from labor unions and outside media attention,” LWC member Mike Wilson (CAS ‘05) said.
According to Wilson, President Jos Williams of the Metro Washington Council labor organization pledged to add his group’s support to the strike if the University did not agree to adopt a living wage by midnight on March 24. DeGioia’s e-mail was sent at 10:58 that night.
Under the new policy, the minimum total compensation for the University’s contract workers will be raised from its current level of $11.33 per hour to $13.00 per hour starting July 1. A subsequent increase to $14.00 is slated to occur by July 2007.
These changes are not without financial ramifications for the University.
“The new policy is estimated to cost GU approximately $542,000 over the next 24 months with that amount added to operating budgets annually after that,” Assistant Vice President for Communications Julie Bataille said.
Initially, the students had demanded an hourly compensation rate for the workers of $14.93, a figure that they came up with based on several local studies. Wilson, however, seemed satisfied with the University’s solution, explaining that a living wage prediction for two years from now can range from $13.50 to $14.50 depending on how inflation is calculated. His only complaint was that the proposal does not sufficiently to protect workers who try to unionize.
Overall, Wilson said that he was pleased with the proposal, noting that many universities have addressed the question of a living wage by implementing simple salary hikes that do not take yearly inflation into account. Georgetown’s new policy stipulates annual adjustments based on changing living costs in the Washington, D.C. area.
“This is the strongest policy that exists at any university,” Wilson said.
