IU raises minimum starting wage for campus employees

IU will increase the minimum starting wage for university employees from $7.25 to $8.25 starting July 1.

This will be the first increase in minimum wage for IU employees in five years, said Mark Land, Associate Vice President of Public Affairs and Government Relations.
It will impact 8,750 IU employees across the state who are currently making less than
$8.25 an hour, Land said.

Land said this raise will cost the university about $900,000 from their budget for the next fiscal year.

“Five years is long enough to go without raising that starting wage rate,” Land said.
“These folks are doing work that we value and this is one way you show people that you value their work.”

Land said approximately two-thirds of the people who will see a raise work on the Bloomington campus due to the larger scale of potential workplaces like dining halls and residence halls on campus.

Land said one reason the university decided to increase the minimum wage was because it had not been changed for five years, since the state minimum wage increased to $7.25.

Ultimately, Land said, this raise is a recognition of the hard work the on-campus employees do for the school.

“A lot of people that will get raises are students,” Land said.  “We’ve been doing a lot of things to make IU more affordable. We know that a lot of college students work. Any little thing that we can do to help put a little more money in their pocket, we think that is a positive.”

Dani Castonzo