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UC system increases minimum wage to $15 an hour

Wikipedia user: Coolcaesar

The University of California system is raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour over the course of three years. 

The State of California's current minimum wage sits at nine dollars an hour.

UC President Janet Napolitano says the new minimum wage standard for the University system will cover employees and private contractors. 

UC spokesperson Dianne Klein says no vote was necessary to approve this pay hike.

"The President believes very strongly that the University needed to do the right thing to make sure that its workers and those workers who are contracted to the University of California receive a living wage," Klein said.

Also included was a plan to insure private contractors comply with government and UC workplace policies.

Klein says the wage increases will not affect tuition and will be taken care of by the system's overall budget.

More than 3,200 staff and possibly several thousand contractors work in services such as bookstores, dormitories and parking lots. The funds generated by their actual enterprises will supplement those from the overall budget.

Wages rise to $13 on October 1, 2015, and bump up a dollar for each of the next two years.

We reached out to UCSB to find out how the increase will affect local workers and students and the public affairs department told us they have no comment, as it is a University of California issue. We're still waiting on the number of employees affected for that campus.