Emory Should Work for Fair Pay

By Brian Goldner
Posted: 03/31/2008

Perhaps more than any other school in the country, Emory students are fortunate to attend an institution committed to more than one type of excellence. Emory, despite its sparse recognition from the national press, has spent the last few years transforming into a premier research, educational and humanitarian
University. It is this last point, the promotion of a humanitarian ethic, that really makes Emory stand out among its peers.

If there is a single person at Emory who could be attributed with the realization of this vision, it would have to be University President James W. Wagner. Recently, I was privileged to join President Wagner for dinner.

After eating, we discussed humanitarianism at Emory, and particularly what Emory is doing to be humane on campus. I learned that Emory University has a commitment to all of its workers, and as such it does not pay less than $10 an hour in wages.

However, I probed further. My next query to President Wagner was simple: whether the cafeteria workers in the DUC, or the rest of Emory Dining’s employees, were paid that much.

After talking with Sodexho employees (Sodexho is contracted by Emory to run Emory Dining) I discovered that they were in fact paid less than $10 an hour. My sources, who wished to remain anonymous, were cafeteria workers who told me that wages were $7.50 an hour at hiring, and were raised to $9.25 after 90 days of employment. However, numerous employees experienced frustration with management because this raise was rarely ever on time, further exacerbating the already existing problem.

In addition to their wages, I learned that their health care plans were more expensive than ones offered by Emory to its employees. One worker I spoke with paid more than $170 a month to receive health care that was lower in quality than plans that Emory offered for less than $50 a month. This monthly fee represented more than 10 percent of her monthly pre-tax income.

Faced with these accusations from the workers, I decided I should demand an official response from the Sodexho leadership. Although they were eager to extol their dining virtues and sustainability efforts, the Emory Dining officials were reticent to discuss workers conditions.

Speaking of employees’ wages, Yibrahim Yildirim, the vice president of Emory Dining said they were paid “well above the Georgia Department of Labor’s (GADOL) average,” but he was unable to discuss the exact wage level, or any other pertinent information, due to confidentiality reasons.

Additionally, according to a 2006 report by GADOL, the average weekly wage was $877 and $1,050 for DeKalb and Fulton counties, respectively. The average accommodation and food service weekly wage was $308 and $417 for DeKalb and Fulton counties, respectively.

It is unclear which wage level Yildirim believed Sodexho was paying more than, but at $9.25 an hour a worker would stand to earn only $370 in pre-tax income per week.

When asked why specific wage information was confidential, Yildirim expressed that conflict could arise with other Emory entities should word get out that Sodexho was paying its workers so much more. When asked whether his employees made more or less than Emory University’s minimum wage of $10 an hour, Yildirim expressed disbelief that the minimum was in fact $10 an hour, but refused to comment further.

It seems to me that a discrepancy exists between the way that Emory will treat its workers and the quality of workers’ rights that it will tolerate from its contractors. Although the wage discrepancy is somewhat small — only $0.75 an hour — there are other factors (such as health care, among others crucial components) that combine to make Sodexho far less amenable to its workers than Emory University.

Of course, the matter is far more complex than that. Although Sodexho pays its workers less than the Emory University minimum wage, it does exceed the federal minimum wage, currently $5.85 an hour but set to increase to $7.25 an hour by 2009, and the local prevailing wage.

Indeed, Emory Dining is viewed by its employees as a “stepping board into better positions,” and is an attractive occupation for unskilled laborers such as recent high school graduates.

However, the question should not be whether Emory Dining adheres to general standards and ethics; rather, the question should be whether it adheres to the quality that we expect from an institution that falls under the Emory umbrella.

If Emory University makes a point of paying its workers no less than $10 an hour, it should expect the same of its contractors. To accept anything else would be remiss.

Brian Goldner is a College senior from Brooklyn, N.Y.