Across the Board Wage Increase

There will be a larger bargaining update later today, but given the importance of this topic we wanted to get you our proposal for across the board wage increases as soon as we could.

Our lowest paid employees can’t afford to live in Portland and are the people most likely to have to come to campus every day. With this in mind, with the likely evaporation of social safety nets, and the knowledge that all of our employees have been exploited for years, we’re making an aggressive ask that lifts the floor while also taking care of everyone else as well.

Our ask is:

• Year one: $10 an hour or 11%, whichever is greater.

• Year two: $5 or 9%, whichever is greater.

• Year three: $5 or 9%, whichever is greater.

The MIT living wage calculator estimates that a single person with no children has to make roughly $27 an hour in Multnomah County. Our lowest paid workers make $18. This is unconscionable given OHSU’s position within the community and the uncertainty we’re facing in the coming years.

We can’t predict what the future will hold, but we have been asked to do a little more with a little less every year. That is unsustainable.

If you believe this is what you deserve, be ready to fight for it. We can only get the contract we deserve by standing together.