The 2020 Campus Crossfire debate featured a fast-paced discussion with few areas of overlap between representatives from the College Democrats and College Republicans.

Washington University will increase the minimum hourly wage to $15 an hour for regular employees and basic service contractors on July 1, 2021, Chancellor Andrew Martin announced June 25.

If Washington University raised its minimum wage, I would be able to let one of my three jobs go and have more time to focus on my academics. My monetary stress when bills come would decrease and I would be able to focus more energy into my career and my personal well-being.

Statement from Washington University faculty members on Fight for $15 and childcare benefits.

Graduate workers, housekeepers, food service workers and all campus workers need your support.

Imagine clocking out after a 14-hour day, getting home and seeing an eviction warning on your door. For too many St. Louis working families, many of whom clean this campus, that’s reality.

Prop B would begin a gradual increase in the state’s minimum wage to bring it to $12 by 2023. Right now, the minimum wage in Missouri is $7.85 per hour, a poverty-level wage that would give a full-time worker about $16,000 yearly pay.

Today I want to ask you a personal question:

How much money do you make?

Although many students have been away from St. Louis for the summer, city officials have continued to advocate both for and against an increase in local minimum wage.
Throughout the spring, students, adjunct faculty members and other members of the St. Louis community held rallies and other events on campus to support the Fight for $15 movement, which calls for a $15 minimum wage. At an event on April 7, Washington University senior and social activist Danielle Blocker spoke of the importance of the Fight for $15.

All day on April 15, members of the St. Louis community protested for a $15 minimum wage, which culminated in a rally on the steps of Brookings and a march through the Delmar Loop.