University System Of Maryland Sets $15 Minimum Wage
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (WJZ) -- If you work for the University System of Maryland, you can expect a pay bump in the new year. The Board of Regents just approved a $15 minimum wage for all permanent workers.
The board made the vote at its meeting at Bowie State University on Friday. Chancellor Jay Perman called the move the right thing to do for employees and their families.
"It's the right thing to do for our Maryland communities, where our employees spend their money and support local businesses and jobs," Perman said. "And, without question, it's the right thing to do for the University System. We rely every day on hard-working, highly skilled employees. And if we don't pay them a competitive wage, we risk losing them to other organizations."
The minimum wage is scheduled to go into effect beginning the first full pay period following Jan. 1 next year.
The move will impact thousands of workers across the state's higher education system, and that includes Maryland's flagship University in College Park, along with three HBCUs.
The raise is the first step in what Perman calls a multistep process, acknowledging that a ripple effect will be made for employees making more than $15 an hour. The board will be "studying the full scope and scale" of pay adjustments that will need to be made.
Here are the institutions the USM is comprised of:
- Bowie State University;
- Coppin State University;
- Frostburg State University;
- Salisbury University;
- Towson University;
- The University of Baltimore;
- the University of Maryland, Baltimore;
- the University of Maryland, Baltimore County;
- the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science;
- the University of Maryland, College Park;
- the University of Maryland Eastern Shore;
- the University of Maryland Global Campus the Universities at Shady Grove,
- the University System of Maryland at Hagerstown,
- and the University System of Maryland at Southern Maryland