Pay boost a budget bomb

The Metropolitan Editorial

News: Metro instituted a pay increase for
student employees.

Views: The increase is nice but ill-timed, and its success partially relies on a student fee increase.

The decision to give hourly student employees a raise in an effort to encourage student employment ÷ rather than lose employees to better-paying non-campus jobs ÷ was the right move at the wrong time.

Student-fee-funded sectors at Metro were sent scrambling to find the cash to compensate employees after budgets that fit the old pay scale were approved in May. Now, those budgets are being tweaked, and employers who hire the majority of student employees (Campus Recreation, Student Activities, and the Office of Student Publications) must figure out how to pay the increase.

Had the increase occurred before budgets were submitted and approved, the problem would have been minimized. As it stands, employers must hope for a high percentage of work-study employees. Work study money is given to employers by the government, rather than coming out of the budget.

The spring vote for an increase in student fees now becomes a paramount concern for employers.
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Metro students contribute a maximum $36.25 activity fee, which is used for operating budgets and employee salaries for student-fee funded programs.

What employers hope for is an increase of this activity fee to offset the pay raise. The proposed student fee increase, if approved, would be the first since 1992. The increase, if sufficient funds are allocated to the activity fee, would ease the burden of paying employees a higher wage.

For now, employers are faced with some tough decisions, especially in jobs where experience is key. Will an employer hire an unskilled employee simply because he or she has a work-study award? The free money might make the option tempting, but it isnāt a realistic solution for most employers.

Metro President Sheila Kaplan and her cabinet hardly deserve to be criticized for trying to encourage students to find jobs on campus. The choice between working for $6 an hour at McDonalds and $9.15 somewhere on campus is really no choice at all.

But hurting employers with an ill-timed announcement and implementation of an increase before the money can be accounted for in a budget is hardly logical.

It is yet another example of administration making questionable decisions.