The recent minimum wage increase, the third in a three-part increase under the Fair Labor Standards Act, isn’t affecting the University budget, one administrator said.

Most employees are already making more than the minimum wage, said Tim Burgess, senior vice president for finance and administration.

“When we put the budget together, we asked all academic departments on campus to include in their budget the impact of the increase so we knew what funding we needed to make,” he said.

The University uses a minimum hiring rate for full-time employees, another reason the minimum wage isn’t affecting them as much, Burgess said.

The minimum hiring rate for full-time employees at the University is $10.10 per hour, or $21,000 per year, and $7.25 for part time employees.

“Every year since fiscal year 2003 that there has been a salary increase by [Georgia state] legislature, with the exception of [2004], the minimum hiring rate has risen,” he said.

The minimum hiring rate has increased 65 percent since 2003.

Though the minimum wage increase isn’t affecting departments’ budgets right now, Burgess said it may eventually take a toll.

But furloughing faculty and staff could save the University $25 million and offset possible long term effects of the minimum wage increase, he said.

“We’ve got a budget target that we have to reduce this year, and part of that is furloughing,” he said. “I am not quite sure, but the final answer should come this week.”

Matthew Boynton, an organizer for the UGA Living Wage Campaign, said the increase is “a positive step forward.”

And while Boynton thinks the increase is positive, he still feels there needs to be a living wage at the University.

“It would be an advantage for the University to enact the 2006 University Council Ad Hoc Committee Report,” he said.

The report calls for a wage of $12 per hour, Boynton said.

“We know what their objectives were and we know what their suggestions were and those were all referenced as part of that report,” Burgess said.

Boynton said the report was well researched by the University Council and they voted for it unanimously, but the administration has not enacted the requirements yet.

“Fiscal realities had to be factored into what we can and can’t do,” Burgess said, adding that most of the campaign’s suggestions were taken into consideration.

Boynton said enacting the increase in minimum wage and living wage is economically sound and he doesn’t think it will increase inflation.

“There is an example of this: the city of Baltimore enacted a living wage and has had positive economical benefits with no inflation,” Boynton said.

He thinks students deserve to make the minimum wage, but it is a tougher issue with the living wage because most student workers work for supplementary cash.

Though the University as a whole is not affected by the increase, not everyone is immune. The Office of Student Financial Aid was unable to give some employees a raise because of the minimum wage increase.

Federal work study students receive the minimum wage increase, but the additional 50-cent pay increase at the end of each year was terminated.

“We had to phase it [out] because of matching requirements and budget cuts,” said Jay Mooney, associate director of OSFA. “We wanted to be able to offer work study to the same number of students.”

Mooney said, though the pay increase caused many people to get paid more per hour, total funding can get used up faster.

“The [minimum wage] increase puts pay close in line with what student assistants and full time lower-end employees earn,” he said.

Some work study students will be getting paid more than the minimum wage due to the 50 cent increase from previous years.

“We have a handful making $8 an hour,” said Sherryl Fern, federal work-study coordinator. “Most students are making $7.25 or $7.50.”

Other campus jobs such as Campus Transit were paying above the minimum wage and were not offset by the increase.

Ron Hamlin, Campus Transit manager, said the pay rate is “simply a market requirement,” making them competitive with other bus services in Athens.

Van operators are paid $10.80, and bus operators are paid $11.92. Supervisors are paid up to $13. The transportation fee funds employees’ salaries.

“We’ve added services,” he said. “The overnight [route] last year and additional services this year. We budget for it.”

Though Campus Transit isn’t struggling with paying employees, it can’t avoid furloughs, Hamlin said.

As for the minimum hiring rate the University uses, Burgess said he thinks it is “more than comparable” to the market the University community lives and competes in.