Wage increase helps support family, student said.
By Sergio Medina
smedina104@student.alamo.edu
Wages will increase Sept. 1 to $15 an hour for full-time staff, and $12.50 an hour for part-time staff and work-study students.
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The board of trustees approved the change during the March 19 regular board meeting at Killen Center.
New full-time staff hires will start at $14.70 an hour, which will increase to $15 after the first year of employment with the Alamo Colleges.
As a result, 146 full-time staff, 420 part-time staff and 739 work-study students in the district will benefit.
The increase does not impact faculty or adjunct wages.
The adjustment is an effort to increase to a living wage for staff and work-study students.
The poverty guideline as suggested by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is $25,750 for a household of four, or $12.38 an hour.
Current wages are $11.50 an hour for full-time staff; $10 an hour for part-time and $9 an hour for work-study students.
Liberal arts freshman Alexandria Matus is a work-study student working the front desk at the advising center on the first floor of Moody Learning Center. She helps direct students to advising resources and assists students in making appointments with academic advisers.
For her, greater financial support is “immensely” important.
“For that raise, it would help tremendously for some people, including myself,” she said March 20.
“My mom is a single parent, and you know, I have other siblings, and you know, times can get rough,” Matus, a full-time student said. “So the fact that we have an opportunity to make extra cash, like, in school helps a lot. So we don’t have to go back and forth; we don’t have to go and get another job.
“That raise is very, very awesome because, you know, not only do you help out yourself throughout school and everything, but you can also probably help out your family more than you could,” she added.
Matthew Gomez, criminal justice sophomore and student success specialist, is part-time staff at the student learning assistance center on the seventh floor of Moody.
Beyond helping students at the SLAC lab, he is tasked with helping student athletes, such as men’s and women’s basketball, soccer and volleyball players, maintain GPAs above 2.0.
“And by doing that, we’re having the students/athletes attend weekly study halls, turning in progress reports, maintaining an agenda or planner,” Gomez said March 20. “So that’s my biggest task.”
For him, the reward coming from his work experience at this college is beyond the money earned.
“It’s great that they’re recognizing some of the employees here,” Gomez said. “It is definitely beneficial, but you just don’t get compensation in terms of monetary value,” he said. “You also receive life skills that you’ll take with you.
“Working here at the SLAC lab, it’s taught me how to act professionally and how to even hold a conversation, just a bunch of little things like that: how to help other people, how to help students, even offer personal tips to other students, as a student myself,” Gomez said.
