Better Pay for Harvard’s Low-Paid Workers Urged

A Harvard University panel recommended that the school give its lowest-paid workers an immediate raise, reporting about seven months after students staged a sit-in to demand better treatment for custodians, cafeteria workers and guards.

The 19-member committee of faculty members, students and employees found that such workers at the nation’s oldest seat of learning saw their real wages decline in the last seven years as the university outsourced services.

“We believe the right solution is to fix the system, not gut the system,” Harvard economics professor Larry Katz, who chaired the panel, told reporters.