Feb. 1, 2007

Minimum wage increase affects Marietta College
by Erin Siebel
siebele@marietta.edu

Across Ohio, millions of workers received a substantial pay hike on January 1st. This sudden rise in income has now been implemented at Marietta College as well.

Last November, voters agreed to pass a raise in the minimum wage for the first time in nearly 10 years. With this new wage increase, many students and employers across campus are now scrambling to figure out how these new pay rates will affect them.

Previously, students were making the minimum wage of $5.15/hour for classification one jobs. Students working classification two or three jobs made $5.30, and classification four jobs made $5.45. Job classifications are decided according to the level of difficulty of the individual job.

Each student also received a 15-cent longevity raise for each year he or she returned to the same job in the same department.
With the new state law increasing minimum wage, Marietta College was forced to rework its system of paying students. Beginning with the December 30th pay period, this wage rate has increased to $6.85 for class one jobs, $7 for class two and three, and $7.15 for class four. Aside from this increase in wages, students no longer receive longevity raises for continued employment.

Although raises have been eliminated, the college is actually doing more than required by the new state law.

“We’re meeting the law; we’re actually going beyond the law,” said Sally Rossello, Associate Director of Student Financial Services.
While this wage increase does affect the amount of money each student will make an hour, it does not change the student’s previously allotted work-study money. Students are awarded a specific dollar amount in their financial aid package each year and cannot go over this limit. This amount will not be increased, as the money that is awarded is part of a federal work-study program and not controlled by the college.

Not only will a student’s work-study allowance remain the same, but also the amount of money each individual department on campus has to pay student workers has not been increased. Therefore each department still has the same amount of money to pay students making almost two dollars more an hour.

Because students have only been working under these new wage rates for a few weeks, the effects it may have around campus are still unclear. But some students are looking at the bigger picture as to what effect a statewide minimum wage increase has on those in the workforce.

“(The minimum wage increase) is more beneficial to students our age because we’re getting more money now but in the long run I think it’s kind of bad because companies are going to need to put more money toward employees they’ve just hired and less money will go into those with salaries,” said junior Daniel Saunders.

Under the previous wage rates on campus, students could work roughly 12 hours a week for the entire school year and make the typical work-study allotment of $2000 without running out of money early. Now students should only work about 9 hours a week to make the same amount of money. While this seems like one positive effect of the wage rate (less work for more money), some students aren’t necessarily happy.

“I like that we’re making more money and having to work less hours, but sometimes that means we have to work harder,” said senior Ellen Doolittle, who currently works at the Recreation Center on campus.
“I feel like we might be understaffed because we won’t be able to afford to have more people working at all times at all the stations we have.”

With this new increase in wages for students, departments all over campus may be forced to cut back hours in order to compensate.
“One thing I didn’t consider when voting for the minimum wage increase in November was how it would effect my student workers,” said Jamie Kendrioski, Assistant Director of International Programs. “Because of the increase in wage rates, I’ve had to dramatically cut back the number of hours my students can work.”

Student workers in the Writing Center returned to campus with their hours drastically cut as well. Junior Ashley Wollam said that tutors’ hours are being cut back. Student tutors are working anywhere from two to six hours a week.

“I was working 8 hours a week. And although I'm not that disappointed by (the decrease in hours) because I don't need (them), a lot of my fellow tutors do need the hours, and now they don't have places to work.”

Dr. Tim Catalano, director of the Writing Center, says that the cut back in hours is not so bad for the Writing Center. “It works out more for us right now, because we are not as busy during the Spring,” says Catalano.

Rossello says that while it may be difficult to cut hours in some places, it’s also an opportunity to maximize the time students are actually working.

“There are some jobs on campus where money was being wasted,” Rossello said.

One concern some students have is the elimination of longevity wages. Now students in a specific job will all be making the same wages, regardless of whether it’s your first day in the position or you’ve been working there for months.

Rossello says that the idea of eliminating the longevity raises was due to the fact that Ohio’s new law calls for a cost of living increase each January. Now wage rates will be increased each year on campus according to state law, basically replacing MC’s previous longevity raises. Instead of students being rewarded for working the same position successfully year after year, students will receive raises as the cost of living steadily increases.

Overall, it seem as if students are happy to be making more money and have not received a dramatic decrease in scheduled hours.
“Last year I didn’t even reach my 2000 dollars but this year I might use up the money I have,” said sophomore Emily Sheets.