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Campus-wide raise in effect

Campus-wide minimum upped 15 cents

by Susanna Henighan

Student workers received a campus-wide raise this year, making the hourly minimum $5.25 instead of $5.10.

The raise is accompanied by efforts facilitated by the Student Employment Office (SEO) to improve campus jobs for students.

These changes are centered around a new job ranking system proposed by the SEO this summer and a new training program aimed at campus employers.

The ranking system divides student jobs into four grades. Each grade requires different skills and entails varying degrees of responsibility. Employees will be paid according to their ranking. By ranking jobs, Director of the SEO Nick Wauters said he hopes pay will be more uniform for similar types of student jobs.

"We want all supervisors on campus to pay students consistently," Aida Reyes, assistant director of financial aid, said.

Currently the ranking system and the subsequent graduated pay is not a mandate, but a "strong recommendation." Wauters said that after this year, the SEO will evaluate the effectiveness of the ranking system and decide its future.

The ranking system is similar to systems already in place for nonstudent employees. Also, some student employers such as Campus Dining Service (CDS), the largest employer of students on campus, already use such a ranking system.

Wauters also plans to facilitate training sessions for employers about student hiring and evaluating procedures. "We want to train campus employers about respecting students as employees," he said.

He also wants to work on a grievance procedure for student employers and employees. According to Wauters there is currently no procedure beyond reporting grievances to President Nancy Dye's office.

These changes will come in the wake of the campus-wide raise. According to Reyes, the decision to give a raise was made in the spring when the college evaluated pay for all its employees, including students. "We wanted to remain competitive," Andy Evans, vice-president for finance, said.

"We've always had pay raises for students," Reyes said. She said that the College has always tried to pay students higher than the national minimum wage and this latest pay increase is just another effort to remain competitive with other off-campus jobs available to students.

Evans said that he thinks it is good for the future when students work for the College. He hopes the pay raise will persuade students to continue working for the college.

The money for the 15-cent raise will come from each individual department's budget, according to Reyes.

According to David Jensen, director of CDS, such raises are expected and occur regularly, so his department had already worked the increase into its budget.

Reyes and Wauters both said they had heard no complaints from departments who were having difficulties finding the money for the raise. "I haven't heard anything," Reyes said.


Related Stories:

Editorial:Job rankings create stigma, September 13, 1996

Oberlin

Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 2; September 13, 1996

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