Paycheck to paycheck (MO)

[struggle4progress]

Webster custodial and facilities staff members get paid more than their Washington University counterparts. But they're not all happy.

By Lindsey Pilcher
Published: Thursday, April 21, 2005

Washington University protesters are making national headlines for their sit-in and hunger strike in support of a living wage for the university's cleaning and landscaping staff. The lowest paid staff members at Wash U make $7.50 an hour without benefits. Here at Webster, the custodial staff does a little better, though workers still say the wages are not ideal.

The starting rate for custodial workers at Webster is $7.75, and the top payment is $10, said Mike Murphy, the union representative for Sodexho employees at Webster. They also receive medical insurance, which the workers at Wash U, who are subcontracted through Aramark, do not get. The night shift gets an average of 50 cents more an hour. <snip>

The living wage in St. Louis is $9.79 an hour. A living wage, according to a St. Louis ordinance, is an hourly wage rate that, on an annual basis, is equivalent to 130 percent of the federal Poverty Guidelines for a family of three. <snip>

"It's the most activist student generation since the 1960s and '70s," Aun said. "Students are interested in everything: fair trade coffee, wages, tuna, genetically-modified foods. We've had a lot of interest and questions about living wage... But we've never seen anything along the lines of Wash U or Georgetown." <snip>

http://www.webujournal.com/news/2005/04/21/News/Paycheck.To.Paycheck-931138.shtml

[Tux]

1. Maybe

Just maybe people will understand that benefits, living wages, and fair trade aren't evil and can help them economical. Then again, libertarians have infected the NRC.