The Hard Numbers December 13, 2007

The Hard Numbers
ASC Living Wage Campaign
Figures Compiled by Steve Guthrie
11/11/07

Comparing the Board resolution with the Living Wage Campaign proposal. The current base starting pay is $10.82 an hour. As of July 2007, all current ASC employees (this doesn’t apply to Aramark employees working beside ASC employees in the dining hall) make at least $11.62 an hour.

The LWC proposal calls for $14.40 an hour by July, 2008, based on current actual rents and other expenses for a model family of one parent and two children. (These are the circumstances of some employees, and any nuclear family of four is one heart attack or car wreck away from them.) Future increases are to be indexed to actual local rents for a two-bedroom apartment by this formula: rent = 30% gross wages.

The college’s resolution calls for supplemental raises of up to 3%, in addition to cost of living raises, “when resources permit,” until 2014. The index for a living wage is the current HUD figure for local rent for a one-bedroom apartment, as reported in universallivingwage.com. The formula is rent=30% gross wages.

There are three basic problems with the college’s resolution.

1. In the second Bush term, HUD changed its way of figuring local rents. HUD reported these average Atlanta rent costs for 2005: 1 bedroom $834; 2 br $928. HUD predicts these figures for 2008: 1 br $741; 2 br $824. So according to HUD, housing costs have gone down about $100 a month over the last three years.
2. This means different living wage calculations. According to universallivingwage.org, which uses HUD rent figures, a living wage for Atlanta in 2005 was $16.04 / hr., and a living wage for 2007 is $14.25 / hr. Does anyone really believe it’s cheaper to live now than it was two years ago?
3. The college uses one-bedroom rents as the basis for its formula. That’s not reasonable for a family with children.

If we use the same rent figures the college plans to use, and if we assume a 3% cost of living raise and a 3% supplement each year, then in 2013-14 the base pay for current employees will be $16.48 / hr. If we assume a 3% rise in the cost of living each year, then a living wage for 2013-14 will be $17.02 / hr. This is a gap of $1123 per year, $93.58 per month, between income and basic expenses (never mind savings or money for emergencies) even if the college does the very most it will consider doing. The college has set 2014 as the target date for a living wage, but even by its own calculations, it will fall short.