Widener

academics

Widener Living Wage Campaign

In January 2006, the living wage campaign reached a successful conclusion! President Harris announced that ARAMARK and Widener agreed to set the minimum hourly wage for ARAMARK employees at or above $8.50 per hour. In addition, there will be an annual inflationary wage increase to address the cost of living. President Harris re-affirmed Widener's committment to becoming an "Employer of First Choice," stating "in 2003 we increased the total compensation for all Widener employees to a level that is well above what is considered an acceptable living wage standard."

President Harris acknowledged the work of Widener's FMLA and Women's Studies Program in initiating reforms to the wages paid to Aramark service workers at Widener. "I wish to thank the group that initiated this discussion for bringing this important topic to the attention of the Widener administration and the entire community as well as those people who worked to bring this issue to a successful resolution. Given that Widener has had ARAMARK as a contractor for over twenty years, it is affirming to learn that our metropolitan mission and commitment to civic engagement stirred within members of our university community a call for action that remained silent for so many years."
This is a wonderful victory for the many Aramark service workers here at Widener and for student activism!

Available Sources for Calculating Living Wage:

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in Washington, D.C. See their website at www.epinet.org and go to "poverty and family budgets". Their website does not currently contain information for Delaware County, or the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania but contains useful budgetary information and sources. Their publication, How Much is Enough? Basic Family Budgets for Working Families (2000) reviews and describes methodologies to conduct cost of living studies. Their new study, Hardships in America: The Real Story of Working Families (2001), actually calculates Family Budgets (for six different family sizes) for 400 U.S. communities. It then calculates the numbers and percentages of all people in each state that fall below poverty and below the Family Budget standard.

Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) has also developed a Self Sufficiency Standard that is being used in several cities, states, and by advocacy groups. For further information about the Standard, to obtain report copies, or to learn about the possibility of WOW develop the Standard for your community (Note: This is not free), contact WOW at 202-638-3143, 815 Fifteenth Street, NW, Suite 916, Washington, D.C. 20005. www.wowonline.org

And from the SWS presentation in Puerto Rico...

WS HOME