LIVING WAGE at UVA

The Living Wage Campaign at UVA was born out of the desire to achieve a living wage for our university employees and to provide a united student and faculty voice to support such important members of our community. Since our official founding in 1997, members and allies of the Living Wage Campaign have advocated for workers rights on grounds, drawing attention to issues of inequality, poverty and the fact that worker’s rights are civil rights. Numerous sit ins, teach ins, marches, petitions, and even a nationally recognized hunger strike have pressured UVA into increasing wages for workers over the years, but we are not there yet. The fight for a living wage has been a long one, but one that is ours to win. Like our peers at other institutions, we as students, in conjunction with the employees who make this university run every day, can pressure university administrators and the Board of Visitors to ensure that everyone who works on our grounds can live with dignity in the Charlottesville community.  

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Although this organization has members who are University of Virginia students and may have University employees associated or engaged in its activities and affairs, the organization is not a part of or an agency of the University. It is a separate and independent organization which is responsible for and manages its own activities and affairs. The University does not direct, supervise or control the organization and is not responsible for the organization’s contracts, acts or omissions.

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As a campaign, we have four demands:

 

1.     Every UVA employee must be guaranteed a LIVING WAGE under university policy, of at least $13.00.

2.     All working members of the UVA community have the right to job security.

3.     All UVA workers must be guaranteed safe, just, and humane working conditions.

4.     The University must allow and facilitate the creation of a Living Wage Oversight Board.