Dear Editor,

The Editorial Board’s piece on May 6, 2010 about Stanford’s living wage policy contained factual errors and misrepresents how the living wage policy is applied.

Perhaps the most egregious error is the lack of understanding about who is actually making a living wage here on campus. Your editorial says that “the living wage should be granted to all university workers for whom a living wage was promised”.  This has happened – ALL of the more than 12,000 employees paid directly by Stanford plus thousands of temporary and casual employees earn more than the living wage. You also reference the need for an enforcement mechanism.  We have this in place as well.  The Internal Audit department regularly audits contractors covered by the living wage policy to ensure compliance.  When we are informed of a failure to pay the living wage, we promptly investigate and take corrective action.

The living wage policy applies to regular employees of contractors who provide services to the university, including services at SLAC.  There are only two exceptions to this coverage:

1. The living wage applies to contracts that have an aggregate value of $100,000 or more. There are hundreds of contracts put in place each year.  Some are for very small dollar amounts or are one-time contracts with individuals or small companies that last only a short time.  It would be impossible to monitor this number of contracts.

2. The living wage does not apply in situations where a contractor’s employees are represented under a collective bargaining agreement.   It would be inappropriate for Stanford to interfere with the rights of unionized employees to negotiate a contract with another employer.  Imposing the living wage policy on a previously negotiated agreement would be inconsistent with our respect for the collective bargaining process.

These are reasonable and necessary exceptions to the living wage policy.  More details on the policy can be found at

http://fingate.stanford.edu/staff/buypaying/policy_notes/living_wage_benefit_guide.html

The editorial also criticized the University for not imposing its living wage policy on other companies such as the Stanford Hospital, tenants like Hewlett Packard that lease space at the research park, or companies like Subway who are vendors on campus.  These are separate corporations from Stanford.  It would be unprecedented and legally unsupportable for the University to unilaterally impose its living wage policy on separate legal entities that have a landlord tenant relationship with the university.

To my knowledge, we continue to be the only large private employer in the bay area that has a living wage policy.  Stanford has taken a leadership position in instituting this policy, which is consistent with our long history of care and concern for all people who are part of the university community.

Sincerely,

Diane Peck
Vice President of Human Resources