CHRIS BACKLEY Tiffany Butler sells a
sweater to first-year student Apurva Chandra
earlier this year. ASUCLA increased its minimum pay by 40
cents.
By Kimberley Ma
Daily Bruin Contributor
To stay competitive with the job market, the Associated Students
of UCLA has increased wages for student employees above that of
California’s new minimum wage of $6.25 an hour, which went
into effect Jan. 1.
UCLA student employees have always been paid above minimum wage,
according to Patricia Eastman, executive director of ASUCLA.
“I wanted to keep that premium,” Eastman said.
“And hopefully the increased wage will help to attract more
student workers.”
The California Industrial Welfare Commission voted Oct. 23 to
increase minimum wage from $5.75 to $6.25 an hour and to increase
the wage again to $6.75 next year.
Previously, the lowest pay for ASUCLA student workers was $6,
and now it’s $6.50. The average increase is 40 cents, but the
pay increase changes with different positions. Lower paid employees
received the highest raise.
“The increase gives me a better reason to stay,”
said Jennifer Sandel, a third-year sociology student who has worked
at the UCLA store for one year.
“It’ll help a little, but there are higher paying
jobs out there,” she continued. “I stay here mainly for
the flexibility and convenience.”
It is more efficient for ASUCLA to hire students than workers
affiliated with outside agencies. Some agencies have a cover charge
which makes their workers more expensive.
“Our mission is to hire students,” Eastman said.
“Many student workers will go on to fill in management
positions and about half of the student employees are
supervisors.”
The projected total of student wages for the 2000-01 school year
is $2.7 million. The additional costs created by the wage increase
will be offset by extra income earned at the end of 2000 and money
saved from having a lower insurance premium.
“This year, the additional costs will be about
$150,000,” Eastman said. “Next year it’ll be more
since it’ll be a full year and the minimum wage will increase
again.”
The association will implement new sales strategies to generate
more revenue.
“We’re trying to concentrate what we sell into a
smaller footprint and free up some space,” said Jerry Mann,
director of the student union and student support services.
“We had stores that took up a lot of square footage but
weren’t generating enough income.”
To balance the costs of next year’s minimum wage increase,
ASUCLA plans to seek new product lines, advertise on the Internet,
and minimize spending.
Generally, businesses will raise prices on merchandise or find
other ways to balance minimum wage increases, but ASUCLA will not
be raising prices.
“Our current plan is not to increase our prices,”
Mann said. “Perhaps later on during the year when we budget
the prices, we’ll make a determination to increase
them.”
Meanwhile, student employees are not complaining about the
raise.
“I think this increase is great,” said Brian
Ruchlewicz, a fourth-year economics student and supervisor of
Tropix. “I might be able to work less hours and focus more on
school.”