Students, faculty and staff gathered in Norris on Sunday to organize in support of higher wages for Northwestern employees. The event revolved around a training session to prepare attendees to advocate for a living wage.
The Northwestern Community Development Corp (NCDC), the Roosevelt Institute, For Members Only (FMO), Alianza and the Center for Student Involvement sponsored the guest speaker, Alex Lofton, a recent Weinberg graduate, who worked on President Barack Obama’s campaign. Eighty-three students showed up for the training, which ran from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Last fall, members of Alianza, NCDC and Roosevelt met with campus workers, union representatives, and Northwestern facility and dining hall managers to address concerns over low wages.
According to Adam Yalowitz, co-chair of the NCDC education committee, many workers at Northwestern are barely paid minimum wage, with about 25 percent of dining hall workers paid under nine dollars per hour, 50 percent paid under $10, and 90 percent under a living wage.
The living wage is generally defined as an hourly full time rate that accommodates the basic expenses involved in supporting a family. Typically the living wage is higher than the minimum wage — which, at $8/hour in Illinois, puts one parent with one child below the poverty line.
The object of Sunday’s Northwestern Campus Organizer Training was to obtain 500 new living wage petition signatures. The campaign’s main priority, according to Yalowitz, is to “increase these worker’s wages to $13.23 per hour, with health care benefits.” The petition is directed at the university administration.
During the training session, several speakers addressed the imminent importance of requiring that Northwestern provide a living wage.
“Economic inequality is the most urgent issue of our time. The average CEO is earning 170 times more than the average worker. Meanwhile, one-fourth of American families are having issues meeting minimum needs. This is not sustainable,” said Nancy MacLean, Professor of History and African-American Studies in Weinberg.
Yalowitz added: “I believe that everyone who works on campus is an educator, and should be included in our community. No one at Northwestern should be paid poverty wages — everyone deserves to be compensated fairly for their contribution to the university, and no one in the Northwestern family should be falling through the cracks.”
Northwestern is not the first university to face this issue. Harvard, Stanford and Georgetown have already adopted policies regarding the living wage in response to community concern.
James Hoover, McCormick freshman, said that the meeting “really got the ball rolling for the living wage. We really needed this leadership to get this campaign going.”
University workers were also a vocal presence. One said that if their campaign were successful, “it would give Northwestern workers the chance to experience the American dream.”