More than 125 ASU employees will benefit from the administration's decision to raise the minimum wage on campus to $9 per hour.
The raise will increase the minimum wage for non-contracted ASU employees who work hourly, said Lisa Frace, associate vice president for planning and budget.
These employees are those who work at the University on regular schedules, including full time and part time, she said.
Student workers and people employed through outside contracts are not considered hourly workers and will not benefit from the wage increase.
The previous minimum wage on campus was equal to the federal wage of $5.15 per hour.
The increase will help the University deal with the issue of turnover, which is a large cost to ASU, Frace said.
"It will allow us to attract and retain employees who otherwise go into other similar positions," she added.
ASU President Michael Crow announced the decision to raise minimum wage at a town hall meeting in the Memorial Union April 5.
The decision to raise the minimum wage came from a wage and salary review the University implemented, Frace said.
"In order to understand the University's recruiting decisions, we need to be able to attract employees," she said.
Employees who could be affected by the wage increase include those in the athletic department and maintenance employees, Frace said.
The money for the increase would come from local and state funding, Frace said. The difference would depend on how the department's unit is funded.
"Some units are locally-funded departments that have revenues that they generate themselves," she added. "And some are state-funded departments, so the money would come from the state."
The ASU Bookstore is a locally-funded department that could benefit from the raise because it produces its own revenue, Frace said.
But Jim Selby, assistant director of the ASU Bookstore, said bookstore administration hasn't heard about plans to raise the wage for any of its workers.
"It's not something that's been announced to us," he said. "It's not part of our budgeting process right now."
Maintenance workers and groundskeepers are examples of state-funded departments that could also benefit, Frace said.
While the list of who will be affected by the raise isn't finalized, ASU predicts between 125 and 150 people would be affected, Frace said.
Political science junior Matt Kruger, a member of the Living Wage Coalition at ASU, said the coalition is satisfied with the administration's attempt to raise the minimum wage.
The Living Wage Coalition is a group of students who want to raise the wages of food-service workers on campus.
"Any wage increase is appreciated by those employees who it affects," Kruger said.
The Living Wage Coalition sent a letter to the ASU administration March 29 requesting ASU raise the pay rate of food service employees to $10.46 per hour.
While the administration has not raised the wage for these workers, Crow invited the Living Wage Coalition to help establish a set of principles for contractors, Kruger said.
Those guidelines are still being established, Frace said.
They will include how much employees are paid and how they are treated, Kruger added.
Frace said these principles would establish how ASU would do business with outside vendors and contractors.
Reach the reporter at tara.brite@asu.edu.
