New Response

RESPONSE TO RUDENSTINE'S "FACTS AND FALLACIES ABOUT EMPLOYMENT AT HARVARD"

On April 27th, the Office of the President of Harvard University released a document, published in the Harvard University Gazette and sent out to the entire University as a mass e-mail, that aimed to refute alleged claims of the Living Wage Campaign. The document, we feel, represented an attempt to mislead the Harvard community on the facts concerning employment on the University campus. The document used deceptively narrow definitions to generate the impression that the problem of "poverty wages" at Harvard is a lot less serious than it actually is. The Living Wage Campaign maintains that at any given time, at least 1,179 Harvard workers earn less than $10.25 per hour and that many of these workers - and indeed many more at Harvard - continue to lack basic benefits such as health insurance. In addition, the document failed to outline any actual reason of why the Harvard administration should not provide a "living wage" and benefits to its workers.

The Administration claims: "403 of Harvard's 13,500 regular employees earn less than $10.25 an hour in wages."

Technically, this is correct. However, it creates a misleading impression that there are only 403 workers on the Harvard campus that earn less than a "living wage." Data published in the University's own Ad-Hoc Committee on Employment Policies indicates that there are at least 1,179 such workers. In defining "regular employees", the administration has excluded part-time Harvard employees, on-campus employees of contractors, and its casual workforce.

SURVEY OF LOW-WAGE EMPLOYMENT AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY
(Source: Ad-Hoc Committee Report, Harvard University-Union Agreements)

Type of Harvard Workers	Hours Worked	Workers Earning Less Than $10 Per Hour (Dec. 99)	Minimum Verified Wage Paid (Current)
Regular (Direct) Harvard Employees	Full-Time	139 **	$8.05
Regular (Direct) Harvard Employees	Limited (Part-Time)	233 **	$8.05
Employees of Contractors (e.g. Sodexho Marriott)	Full-Time	203 **	Unsure
Employees of Contractors (e.g. Sodexho Marriott)	Limited (Part-Time)	276 **	$7.00 ***
Casual Harvard Employees	Limited (Part-Time)	328 **	$6.50
TOTAL		1179 **	$6.50

* - Refers to data from the year 2000.
** - Estimates compiled by the Ad-Hoc Committee on Employment Policies. For reasons of selection bias (detailed at http://www.livingwagenow.com), the numbers cited above most likely represent an under-estimate of the number of workers at Harvard not earning a living wage.
*** - Data collected from worker interviews.

Many of the sub-contracted positions that now pay the lowest wages on the Harvard campus had, until recently, been filled with unionized workers directly hired through the University. As the University has outsourced an increasing number of its services, however, unionized workers have been replaced by non-unionized workers and workers' wages have plummeted accordingly. Over the past two years, the university has replaced its unionized guards, who used to make a "living wage," with non-unionized guards from a subcontracting firm (S.S.I.), who make less than a "living wage." This policy has cut the guards' union from over 180 workers to 19.

The Administration claims: "The minimum starting [wage] of a residential dining service worker employed by Harvard is currently $10.85 per hour and after 2 years of service the per-hour rate is $12.35."

Again, a technically correct statement that deliberately creates a misleading impression through the selective use of language. The minimum starting wage for a non-residential dining service worker employed by Harvard is $8.05 per hour. The minimum starting wage for a non-residential dining service worker at Harvard is currently at most $7.00 per hour - people working in this job previously earned substantially higher wages under direct Harvard employment prior to outsourcing by the University.

The Administration claims:"No full-time employee at Harvard earns less than $10.25 an hour in total compensation."

At least 342 full-time employees at Harvard earn a wage that is below $10.25 an hour and many employees at Harvard lack basic benefits such as health insurance. While University-subsidized health insurance is provided to full-time direct Harvard employees, those who work half time or less do not receive such benefits. The Ad-Hoc Committee estimates that 220 of Harvard's casual workforce are without health insurance. None of the companies that contract for service work on the Harvard campus provide health insurance to workers employed for less than 16 hours per week.

The Administration claims: "The University has established guidelines governing contracting with outside companies for service work for ongoing service to the Harvard campus of more than $50,000 per year and for periods of nine months or more. They specify that companies with whom Harvard contracts must maintain employment practices (including offering health insurance to employees who work 16 hours a week or more on the Harvard campus) consistent with the University's commitment to fairness for all workers."

While the motives underlying the extension of health insurance embodied by the guidelines are to be applauded, the move also risks doing more harm to employees than good. For instance, the guidelines reduce the hourly requirements for health insurance from 20 to 16 hours for janitors and from 17.5 to 16 for everybody else. To avoid the extra costs involved in the provision of such benefits, employers, be they Harvard or its contractors, may opt to reduce employees hours so as to render them ineligible. Historical precedents for this exist - when Harvard promised health insurance to part-timers working 20 hours per week, a lot of them were suddenly cut back to 19 hours per week. The Living Wage Campaign suggested independent monitoring to protect workers against such cutbacks; Harvard refused. The suggestion that the benefit eligibility threshold should be lowered to a level that would make it simply impractical for such cutbacks in hours to occur has similarly been met with little consideration.

STARTING WAGES FOR ALL UNIONIZED WORKERS MAKING LESS THAN $10.25/HOUR

Occupation	Current Starting Wage	Occupation	Current Starting Wage
Parking Service Attendants	$8.50	Cashier (Campus Restaurants)	$8.30
Guards	$8.50	Lead (Campus Restauramts)	$8.80
Museum Attendants	$8.50	Full-Time Custodian	$9.65
Short-Order Cook	$8.80	Part-Time Assistant Crew Chief	$9.85
Counter (Campus Restauramts)	$8.05	Part-Time Custodian	$9.40

The Administration claims: "Health benefits were made available to all employees of the University who work at least two days a week as of Jan. 1, 2001."

Harvard University does not allow its casual employees (including those working in data entry, as mailroom assistants, shuttle-van drivers, telephone operators and over 50 other occupational categories) to work more than 16 hours per week, thereby precluding them from receiving health benefits.

The Administration claims: "Harvard's education and training program, the Harvard Bridge to Learning and Literacy, is one of the most innovative and generous employer-based education programs in the nation. It provides courses to entry level workers in English-as-a-second-language, basic literacy, GED, and computer literacy."
The Living Wage Campaign fully endorses the Harvard Bridge to Learning and Literacy program. However, it is also no substitute for the implementation of a "living wage" for employees at Harvard. No amount of ESL training or computer literacy will eliminate the "poverty wages" that are currently being paid to at least 1,179 workers at Harvard. We urge the University to continue with its "Bridge" program, but to also implement a "living wage" at Harvard.

The Administration claims: "President Rudenstine and Provost Fineberg have open office hours on a regular basis in which they meet with any student wishing to consult them on any subject. They have met repeatedly with student advocates of the Living Wage during office hours, during visits to Houses, and at meetings specifically scheduled to issues relating to employment practices at Harvard."
As recently as one week prior to the commencement of the sit-in, during President Rudenstine's last office hours, President Rudenstine informed members of the PSLM that the "living wage" issue would not be reopened.

The Harvard University administration has attempted to discredit the "living wage campaign" by challenging the stated facts of low-wage employment at Harvard. In doing so, the administration has tried to move the debate away from whether or not Harvard should implement a "living wage" towards whether or not the "living wage campaign" is credible. However, the move to debate facts is itself evasive. Why, for example, should Harvard's decision to implement a "living wage" depend upon whether there are 400 or 1200 workers earning below $10.25 per hour in wages? This document establishes the basic facts of employment in Harvard, citing almost exclusively administration sources. Hopefully, there will be no more dispute over facts. Maybe we can now move back to the real question that the University has attempted to conceal:
WHY NOT IMPLEMENT A LIVING WAGE NOW?