President Shapiro announced the allocation of nearly $400,000 — the remaining balance of the President's discretionary fund — to increase selected University staff salaries as early as July 1.
The announcement was made during the Wednesday Council of the Princeton University Community meeting and supplemented a PriCom recommendation to provide up to $1.5 million to further increase salaries next year.
"I think that the findings of the Priorities Committee are pressing and important," Shapiro said. "It's very important to me to get started this year."
The additional funding will increase the compensation of bi-weekly employees, including secretaries and service workers.
The budget approved by the board of trustees in January allocated $130,000 for increasing salaries of biweekly employees. These workers were targeted for increases following a committee finding that they were receiving compensation packages below or near market rates.
"PriCom didn't have any money available for this coming year," said Provost Jeremiah Ostriker, who also chairs the priorities committee. "We had $130,000 already in the budget that would have gone to many of the same people."
The additional money from Shapiro will allow for larger increases. Next year's budget, according to Vice President and Secretary Thomas Wright '62, will almost certainly include funding to continue increases facilitated by Shapiro's one-time allocation.
Many of bi-weekly employees slated to receive increases are members of unions, Wright said.
"But we can only allocate the money for union workers. They will decide how to divide it," Ostriker said, adding that, though union leaders are not obligated to use it, "the committee provided them with an algorithm to determine compensation."
Union leaders will negotiate and decide if biweekly employees or other workers will receive the new increases.
"They are going to have to bring that to the unions and discuss [the allocation to bi-weekly employees] with them," Wright said. "It's not a slam dunk."
The new funding initiatives come after nearly a year of student and worker activism.
"They provided a report to us to review — WROC brought this to our attention," Ostriker said.
Members of WROC, however, say the additional funding is only a first step.
"We think Princeton shouldn't just correct low salaries and say they want workers at market level," said Vincent Lloyd '03, a WROC member. "We should not let their salaries go below market levels at all."
The issue for many workers is a cost of living adjustment, Lloyd said. Though these additional funds will aid the employees who lag behind market rates the most, it does not prevent other salaries from eventually falling behind as well, he added.
"It's only a small step," Lloyd said, "but it's a start."
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