Many employees across Arizona are benefiting from the recent minimum-wage increase, but that pay raise doesn’t apply to college student workers.
As a state entity, the University of Arizona is not required to raise its minimum wage. However, the school will spend an estimated $6.6 million to boost student wages at UA by July.
"We know that if we don’t move to this new minimum wage, then we’re not going to be able to attract the kind of student employment that we need, on our campus especially," said Allison Vaillancourt, vice president of Human Resources at the university.
Vaillancourt said she doesn’t think student workers will lose any hours as a result. She said the school needs student workers and cutting their hours wouldn’t benefit them or the university.
NAU sent out a statement saying the university is still analyzing the budget, and ASU has yet to announce if its students will see any changes.
