An estimated 40 to 50 members of Harvard University's Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) entered a campus administration building yesterday to demand that the minimum wage for campus employees be increased to $10.25 per hour. The students intend to remain in Massachusetts Hall, a building that houses the office of Harvard President Neil Rudenstine, until the administration complies with their request.
The sit-in is part of a weeklong effort by the PSLM to voice its continued disappointment of Harvard's stance on raising the living wage. Rallies and panels are scheduled for today to discuss the organization's goals.
The PSLM - which earlier this year protested the announcement of Lawrence Summers as Haravrd's 27th president - is also demanding that Harvard join the Workers' Rights Consortium, a non-profit organization which monitors colleges for compliance with workers' rights codes.
"We are sitting in because administrators have not only failed to improve wages and benefits, but have aggressively worked to slash them as support for a living wage policy has grown.... We are sitting in because we have exhausted every avenue of dialogue with the administration that could lead to a living wage," PSLM said in a press release.
PSLM says its efforts, which include meetings, coalition-building, and public demonstrations, have not received adequate attention, forcing the group to stage a "peaceful sit-in" to increase pressure on the administration.
Students have agitated to raise the salaries of Harvard employees for over two years. In 1998, Harvard students banded together to create the Living Wage Campaign with the goal of improving the treatment of University employees. Their efforts mirror the work of the Cambridge City Council, which fought successfully to institute a $10.25 wage for workers in Cambridge.
Over 1,000 non-academic staff members work at Harvard, and the university is the largest employer in Cambridge. The employees are often paid as low as $6.50 per hour without benefits, a wage which puts some families below the federal poverty line. The US minimum wage $5.25 per hour.
Harvard students are requesting that university employees receive at least the same wage as those employed by the city of Cambridge.
Some Harvard administrators have remained inside the building during the sit-in, but Harvard President Rudenstine left at approximately 4 p.m. amidst loud protesting, The Harvard Crimson reported.
