All Hillsdale employees paid by the hour, including students, will see a raise in their wages to $9.25 per hour due to a final increase to Michigan’s statewide minimum wage.
The Workforce Opportunity Wage Act was put into effect in September 2014. At the time, minimum wage was raised to $8.15. Gradual increases brought the hourly wage to $9.25 this month. According to the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, this act “applies to employers in Michigan that have two or more employees age 16 and older.”
Hank Prim, assistant director of Student Activities, said this will only impact employees paid by an hourly rate. Students currently paid an hourly rate above minimum wage will not see an increase; this only affects workers who are receiving the current minimum wage. Hillsdale’s salaried staff, he said, will not be affected by the wage increase. Sometimes, however, college employers can choose to pay above minimum wage.
“It’s all dependant upon the office that’s responsible for those student employees,” Prim said. “You have a minimum rate of hourly pay that you’re afforded as a student employee. Above that, individual student supervisors can opt for higher wages depending upon levels of responsibility or whether they supervise other employees or if they have management responsibilities that are above and beyond what a normal, hourly student employee would make.”
The college’s controller’s office and human resources departments set requirements and guidelines for campus employers to determine what responsibility looks like for an employee. The controller’s office is under the college’s financial affairs division, while human resources is under the administrative division.
“HR handles the employment side, whereas the controller’s office deals with making sure whatever the pay and rules are, they are comporting with the law, federal, state or local,” Prim said.
“And the controller’s office is responsible for managing the college’s accounts to make sure that we’re staying on track financially.”
Executive Director of Human Resources Janet Marsh said any hourly rates above minimum wage need to be cleared by HR and the controller.
“We have established guidelines for student compensation,” Marsh said. “The going rate for most positions is minimum wage.”
Supervisors may make a case for students to make more than the minimum if they are working undesirable shifts or if the job requires a specialized skill.
“Basically, they justify the request,” Marsh said. “If it meets our criteria, it would be approved.”
One campus workplace affected by this increase is Mossey Library. All of the student employees of the library are paid based on an hourly wage, according to Dan Knoch, director of the Mossey Library. Being able to pay students as much as reasonably possible is a good thing, he said, but he hopes people are mindful of what minimum wage actually means.
“The college’s policy has always been to pay minimum wage to student workers,” Knoch said. “The more they can make, the better for them, and I’m happy for them. But I think the thing people lose with minimum wage is that it’s not meant to be a living wage; it’s a starting wage. You’re going to learn something, you’re going to get paid for it, and, hopefully, you’re going to build on that.”
Wage compression is when there is a small gap between employees at minimum wage and those with an hourly rate above minimum wage. Knoch and Marsh both said wage compression is a necessary outcome of minimum wage increases. While these raises do not directly increase salaried workers’ payments, it does affect them.
“What minimum wage does sometimes is it will push salaries up,” Knoch said. “It’s good for the full-time worker.”
Compression is a financial issue that the college needs to keep in mind, according to Marsh.
“It tends to happen when the minimum wage increases,” she said. “We are not in a position to simply give every employee an increase that corresponds to the minimum wage, but we make adjustments that are appropriate.”