Workers all across Seattle got a raise on April 1 as the city began phasing in its new $15 minimum wage law. No so for student employees at the University of Washington — and they are hopping mad.
Because of its status as a public entity, UW officials say they aren't sure the city's minimum wage law applies on campus. The university's reluctance to bump the comp prompted student activists to storm the University of Washington Club on Wednesday night, effectively shutting down a UW regents dinner. According to The Seattle Times, the regents retreated to a downstairs dining room, "leaving plates of uneaten appetizers on the table."
“If every other employer in Seattle can pay $15 an hour by 2017, surely the UW, a $6 billion a year institution, can pay at least $15 dollars an hour to all workers on campus,” Garrett Strain, a grad student at the Evans School of Public Affairs and member of the UW Academic Workers for a Democratic University, told The Daily. Strain was not among the students who crashed the regents dinner.
