Living paycheck to paycheck

Victoria Hoyt is a single mother struggling to attend to and provide for her sick daughter without child support. The program coordinator for the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the UW Medical Center, Hoyt is a contract-classified staff member, one of more than 5,000 employees who are not academic faculty members but work at the UW -- staff that will not receive a 2 percent cost-of-living-related raise.

Most UW classified staff are members of a local union -- Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 92 -- which met on July 9 to discuss the situation. The administration maintains that it is not able to provide this wage increase for contract-classified employees, despite having done so in the past.

On July 17, the Board of Regents will meet to approve next year's wage increases. SEIU, Local 925 will hold a rally in Red Square and ask for time to speak to the Board of Regents to emphasize its point.

Hoyt recently lost her child support when her husband was fired from Boeing; as a result, she pays for her daughter's many medical bills with health insurance that has almost doubled

in cost over the last few years. Her daughter Anna, 15, has thyroid problems and suffers from chronic migraines and depression. Hoyt often has to leave work to take Anna to the hospital. Not receiving a raise makes her life difficult, and her story is one of thousands. Hoyt has encouraged her coworkers to write letters to the regents, and has herself written to interim UW President Lee Huntsman.

"I thought that maybe if someone heard the impact on one person and realized that we're not just going to sit back and let this happen, then they can't ignore it," she said. "I wanted to put a family in front of [the UW administration] -- a family that this will affect."

Hoyt is disappointed that she has not received a reply to her letter, which detailed her hardships. While she understands that the UW is not responsible for her expenses, she does blame it for not providing her the cost-of-living increase she relies on to make it from paycheck to paycheck. Though health benefits, groceries and gas cost more now, she said, her paycheck has not been adjusted.

UW faculty members earn wages that are, on average, 100 percent higher than those of classified staff; professional staff earn, an average, 50 percent more than classified staff. UW faculty and professional staff will receive a wage increase this year, while classified staff will not. This is the fundamental issue over which SEIU, Local 925 has been battling the UW administration.

"It's great that faculty, who are often making over $100,000, receive a wage increase, but so should classified staff who are not making anywhere near that," said Hoyt. She claims she makes less now than she did when she started at the UW three years ago because of rising health costs.

Tammara Breland, a patient-care representative for oncology and cardiac care at the UW Medical Center, pays for health care for a family of five on her salary. The cost of health care has forced Breland to look for a new job.

"It's not fair that the rest of the University is getting raises; we're all on the same boat," she said. "I work as hard as anyone else, and I deserve the same reward. It's class discrimination that they are ignoring us and giving others raises."

According to the UW administration, it is unable give contract-classified staff wage increases because doing so is illegal based on the contract between the UW and SEIU, Local 925. According to the union, however, this is a false cover, behind which the UW is hiding.

The administration claims that because contract-classified employees get step raises, they are better off than most employees, according to Michael Laslett, higher-education division director for SEIU, Local 925. However, most contract-classified employees are at the top of the step raises and cannot go any higher.

"The step argument ignores the big picture. Our basic belief is it's unfair to give wage increases to people higher-paid but not those who are lower paid," said Laslett. "The administration has continuously given higher wage increases to other employees."

If the regents approve the wage increases, but do not include the classified staff, employees like Hoyt and Breland will be forced to look for second jobs or supplemental income, something both are seriously considering.

"Oftentimes, we are doing pretty boring work, but we show up every day, we do our job and we work hard," said Hoyt. "It's hard to understand why we get singled out and don't get raises when everyone I work for says I'm too essential and they need me here every day."

Hoyt and her daughter feel lucky having a roof to live under, but they know how difficult it is to make ends meet; they are often left with only boxed macaroni and cheese for dinner until the next paycheck comes.