UC Hands Out Raises

Sacramento, CA — Along with approving executive salary increases, this week the University of California regents agreed to boost hourly workers’ wages to $15.

Yesterday’s vote by the university-system’s governing board to approve a three percent salary increase for 15 of its highest-paid executives, in keeping with what has been approved for other top state officials, comes on the heels of UC President Janet Napolitano’s Wednesday announcement to boost the minimum wage of university employees and contract workers.

With this move, the UC system, one of the state’s largest employers and likely the first university in the nation, joins the increasing number of municipalities, including Los Angeles, to set a $15 hourly minimum wage. Beginning Oct. 1, the hourly minimum wage for those who work 20 hours or more per week will increase for many from $9, the current state minimum, to $13; over the next two years, the amount will rise one-dollar each year, reaching $15 by the fall of 2017. The pay increase potentially adds $14 million a year to the cost of its $12.6 billion payroll. In a tweet, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who sits on the California State University board of trustees, encouraged it to also “#FightFor15.”