Alumni report: Harvard stingy on hourly pay

BOSTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) -- Harvard University, one of the world's richest universities, is stingy when it comes to paying hourly workers, according to a report released Monday by an alumni group that has campaigned for increased wages.

"Some of the members of the nonprofessional staff are paid so little they're eligible for food stamps," said Ira Arlook, a spokesman for Harvard Alumni for a Living Wage.

Arlook's group supported students who last May staged a 21-day sit-in at the Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus that sought a minimum wage of $10.25 an hour for janitors and other workers, some of whom earned less than $7 an hour.

The report shows Harvard, with an $18 billion endowment, paid some workers a starting hourly wage of $9.65. About 1,000 workers, including contract workers and those directly employed by Harvard, earned less than $10.68 an hour, qualifying most for the federal food stamp program.

That is far less than the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a cross-town rival which pays its workers $14.39 an hour; or Boston University which pays $14.97 an hour; or Wellesley College which pays $15.26 an hour. MIT's endowment stands at $6.5 billion, while Boston University has $662 million and Wellesley College has about $780 million.

Harvard administrators have remained mum about the issue pending recommendations due later this week from a commission appointed after the May protests. A preliminary report released in October showed the number of Harvard direct employees paid below the so-called "living wage" increased from 170 in September 1994 to 424 in March 2001.

The "Harvard Living Wage Campaign," supported by the alumni group, has urged school officials to pay employees at least $12 an hour and subsidize health insurance and child care.

The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group, Wider Opportunities for Women, estimates that parents must each earn at least $11.97 an hour at full-time jobs, generating an annual income of about $43,000, to support a family of four in the Boston area.

The U.S. minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, compared with $6.75 in Massachusetts.

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