A report released Tuesday by the National Economic Development
and Law Center found that the wages for most UC service workers are
not enough to cover the basic costs of living in California.
The NEDLC is a national research organization that provides help
to low-income areas and promotes a higher quality of living within
various communities.
Community members, students and service workers gathered in
Kerckhoff Hall for the release of the report and to show support
for service workers.
The report, titled “High Ideals, Low Pay; a Wage Analysis
of UC Service Workers,” analyzed 6,374 workers at nine
University of California campuses and five medical centers.
“What we want to do is get the idea out there that even
though the university has this reputation for being a place of
opportunity, that that’s not necessarily the case,”
said Aimee Durfee, a senior program specialist for NEDLC.
According to the report, 46 percent of UC service employees earn
wages that would not meet the basic needs for a family with two
parents working full-time and raising two children, if both adults
worked for the university.
The report also found that the minimum amount an average senior
custodian makes is $9.75 an hour, while the maximum is $12.51,
which is less than their counterparts make at the California State
University and community college systems.
The speakers discussed the implications of such low wages.
Luz Roman, an assistant cook with UCLA catering, said she has
been working at UCLA for seven years and must pick up cans to be
able to pay her rent and take care of her children.
“The university is beautiful. People think I am so proud
of working here. I went to college for two and a half years, and
I’ve been an assistant cook for seven years. I know I can do
better,” Roman said.
“I know (the university) can do better. The truth is that
UCLA is pretty from the outside, but not from the inside,”
she said.
The wages for many UC workers are low enough to qualify them for
nine different public welfare benefits, Durfee said.
According to the report, the benefits allow the workers to take
care of their families, but it represents a public payout
subsidizing UC’s low wages.
Many workers are single parents who have no outside help and
must work at least two jobs because they do not make enough at
UCLA, Durfee said.
Dina Calederon, a senior custodian who said she has worked at
UCLA for one and a half years, cleans classrooms and offices. For
overtime she cleans bathrooms.
“By day I clean houses and babysit. If I am asked to work
as a nanny on the weekend, I go. I need money for my
household,” Calederon, who speaks Spanish, said through a
translator.
She said when her daughter asks for six dollars to go out to
eat, she cannot afford to give her the money, let alone save money
for her daughter’s future.
“My daughter wants to go to college, but how can she with
the money we are making?” Calederon said.
Students showed their support for workers and discussed how
state budget cuts to the university have affected workers and
students.
“It is not in the UC Master Plan for student fees to rise
and wages to go down,” said Anita Garcia, a second-year law
student and member of the UC Student Association and Graduate
Student Association.
The UC recognizes the financial struggles that are affecting
everyone in the system, university officials said.
“Budget cuts have recently prevented the university from
giving system-wide raises to employees for the last two years.
Fortunately, the compact of the governor provides an increase in
salary funding if it is passed by legislature,” said Noel Van
Nyhuis, a spokesman for the UC Office of the President.
“The (wage) comparisons in the report are not accurate and
only compare wage ranges, and not actual salaries,” he added.
“By comparing wage ranges it doesn’t actually reflect
what is being paid.”
The UC does recognize that in some cases they are lagging behind
with wages, Van Nyhuis said.
Changes in wages will not be able to be made until state funding
is increased, UC officials say.
UC service workers say they hope that through the report and the
support they have received the wage problem will be solved
soon.