The new Kentucky State University President is taking a $90,000 pay cut to raise the salaries of the university's 24 lowest paid workers.
According to St. Louis Today, President Raymond Burse thought about raising the salaries of these workers almost as soon as he got the job in June. He is replacing former president Mary Sias, who retired in May.
The lowest paid employees (mostly serving as grounds people, custodial staff and lower-end clerical workers), who are benefiting from this pay raise, all made minimum wage: $7.25 per hour.
When Burse took the role of president in June he asked the university chief financial officer how much it would cost to raise all of their salaries. His answer: $90,125.
"I figured it was easier for me to forgo that amount, rather than adding an additional burden on the institution," Burse told St. Louis Today. "I had been thinking about it almost since the day they started talking to me about being interim president."
Coming up with that money means that Burse is taking a 25 percent pay cut, decreasing his salary from $349,869 to $259,744. Burse's proposal of taking a pay cut was put into effect immediately at a July board meeting.
The pay raise brings the lowest paid employees at the university from minimum wage to $10.25 per hour.
"It takes everybody on this campus to do what we need to do to improve it," Burse told AP. "I want everybody on the team to be involved and this is one way of showing employees on the lower end of the pay scale that they are important as well."
Burse told The Slatest that this effort was not a publicity stunt. Burse's pay raise is not only for the current 24 minimum wage employees; it also extends to new hires even after his tenure is over.
