On March 7, UVA Today announced that the University would begin on January 1, 2020 to pay all full-time employees a living wage of $15/hour.

From the article:

“As a University, we should live our values – and part of that means making sure that no one who works at UVA should live in poverty,” UVA President Jim Ryan said in a message to the University community on Thursday.

The living wage adjustment will increase the paychecks of 1,400 full-time, benefits-eligible workers, which represents about 60 percent of employees currently earning less than $15 an hour. UVA is considering how to address wages for the remaining 40 percent of full-time workers making less than $15 an hour, who are employed by contractors.

“Over the next few months, my team will be working on a plan to extend the same $15 commitment to contract employees,” he said. “This is legally and logistically more complicated, but our goal is to make it happen.”

Combined, the University’s academic division and medical center employ more than 17,400 full-time, benefits-eligible workers.

Virginia Organizing hopes the rest of Virginia’s universities and other employers will follow this excellent example. Thank you to all the students, faculty, and organizers who made this victory possible, and thank you to President Jim Ryan and the Board of Visitors.