Living Wages at KSU

Kathy Schwaig

Every full-time KSU employee deserves a wage they can live on. According to MIT, a living wage for one working adult with no children is $16.72/hour in Cobb County in 2020 (1).

The City of Atlanta, Athens-Clarke County Unified Government, and the Universities of Memphis, Rochester, and Kentucky have all committed to raising their minimum wages to $15/hour. KSU is falling behind local and peer institutions by failing to take this necessary step towards racial, economic, and gender justice.

Resources:

(1) Glasmeier, A. K. (2020). Living Wage Calculation for Cobb County, GA [Massachusetts Institute of Technology]. Living Wage Calculator. https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/13067

To: Kathy Schwaig
From: [Your Name]

We call on KSU and the Board of Regents to commit to the following:
(1) Raise the wage floor to $15/hour or $31,200/year by the 2023 fiscal year, and to $20/hour or $41,600/year by the 2025 fiscal year;
(2) Increase salaries under $70,000 to address corresponding wage compression or inversion as well as gender and racial inequities in pay;
(3) Annual cost of living adjustments for all employees by the 2023 fiscal year; and
(4) Adjust compensation so that no Kennesaw State University employee can make more than 10 times the University’s lowest-paid full-time employee by the 2025 fiscal year