Thanks to Student Government President John Aloszka and Student Government Treasurer Kenneth Smith, Ospreys who work for Student Government, the Student Union, Recreation and Wellness, and Spinnaker will now be able to receive a minimum wage of $9 an hour. This raise is expected to take effect in the next fiscal year.

“We were talking about mental health and stressors on students and it seemed to be – and I also work here so I understand – that you don’t make enough money at a minimum wage anywhere in the country to survive. But when you’re a student and you have all these added expenses, it can be particularly stressful to make ends meet,” said Aloszka.

You’re probably wondering what affect this will have on budgets and services. Aloszka says it’s important to maintain and balance student salaries and student services. 

 “I would love for it to be a dollar or two dollars more, but you don’t want to impact other services, so you really have to walk this fine line of ‘We’re gonna raise wages for students but at the same time we’re not going to decrease the services we provide to the student body,” said Aloszka. “I can’t raise every wage on campus because that’s not really my authority, but I can say budgets within the activity and service fee that Student Government approves should be paying a certain standard of pay.”

Aloszka says that this pay increase will start at a $9 flat rate and then directors can increase from there as they see fit based on things like experience.

“I really think that it’s going to be important to really set the right example for the rest of campus, and so if Student Government can say ‘We are doing this’ then we want to be an example for other departments to say ‘Okay, we can do it too’.”

Students will begin to see their wages increase on July 1, 2020. Salary reserves (money that hasn’t been spent in the budget) may cause the increase to happen sooner.

Student Government is also working on a Student Involvement Center that can help students get involved on campus and on the expansion of Lend-A-Wing which will be moved to the core of campus from Hicks Hall.

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