rich 1.0 Action Network https://actionnetwork.org <link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/petition/demand-15-an-hour-for-all-university-of-michigan-workers?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-petition-area-demand-15-an-hour-for-all-university-of-michigan-workers' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div> YDSA at UMich https://actionnetwork.org/groups/university-of-michigan-ydsa https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/petitions/photos/000/323/358/normal/Stock_Power.png In the summer of 2021, the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan approved a budget including a $15 minimum wage for all non-temporary “permanent” employees across each of its three campuses. Sadly, the Board of Regents chose not to extend this to all employees, including students and temporarily-contracted workers. We have to ask, why was this exclusion made, and what can we do about it? We are calling on you, the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan, to establish a universal campus minimum wage of $15 an hour for all. Students contribute a significant fraction of the university’s workers, present in virtually every unit, and yet remain underpaid for the work they do amid the ongoing pandemic. As labor strikes bloom across the country, the Board of Regents must recognize that the work students do is a critical component of the university and its ability to sustain itself. Without students working in the dorms, in the dining halls, as athletes, at some desk, or elsewhere on campus, operations would come to a grinding halt. For what they are contributing, they are simply not substantially compensated. As regents, you have a responsibility to the campus community and should recognize that the university and the Ann Arbor community are increasingly unaffordable for students. Housing prices and costs of living continue to rise amid the pandemic and student wages remain the same. This system inevitably favors those with the ability to pay for these staggering rates and forces out low-income students from marginalized backgrounds who don’t have that privilege. Across sectors of the economy, labor shortages are revealing an increased need to improve pay: this is no different among student employees. Administrative staff continue to receive pay raises and exorbitant exit deals, such as Schlissel’s multimillion deal which has grossly overpaid our leadership for neglecting the university community. We are fed up with this inequality and demand change. Instead of inflating our administrative budget further, we ask that student workers be supported in their struggle to live on campus. As community members of the University of Michigan, we are calling for you to use your authority as regents to ensure that this universal $15 minimum wage is included on the budget for FY2023 for all university employees, students or otherwise. Action on this is necessary to uphold campus equity and provide the workers of this institution the dignity and parity they deserve. https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/demand-15-an-hour-for-all-university-of-michigan-workers