This week the Northwestern Living Wage Campaign is proud and excited to announce an important victory. Six weeks after over 400 students, workers, faculty and staff united at the Living Wage Rally, the administration has agreed to provide campus workers with community benefits. These include free personal finance classes, library use privileges, free access to the Ryan Field shuttle bus, free tax filing counseling, subsidized courses in computer application and workplace skills, and inclusion in the WildCARD Advantage Program, which provides discounts at participating stores.
The promise of community benefits is a major victory for workers and a direct response to the hard work of everyone involved in this campaign. We applaud the administration’s first step toward creating a more inclusive community and look forward to working toward the implementation of these benefits.
But our work is not over. Community benefits are only one part of what it will take to adequately compensate workers for their work here on campus. Today, 90% of the hundreds of sub-contracted workers at Northwestern do not make enough to cover basic necessities. The people who feed us, clean up after us, and protect us at night cannot afford their families’ basic needs of childcare, food, adequate housing, and healthcare.
We will continue to work until every worker on campus is provided a living wage that ensures no one is forced to choose between putting food on the table and keeping a roof overhead. Our campus made historic progress this week and we are excited to continue the important work of building a truly inclusive Northwestern community.
With excitement and hope,
The Northwestern Living Wage Campaign