Public School Essential Workers to Receive $15 Hourly Minimum Wage

Custodians and other essential workers with Durham Public Schools (DPS) in Durham, North Carolina, will receive a retroactive pay raise dating back six months after the DPS Board of Commissioners agreed to spend an additional US$950,000 to move the start date of the pay raise from January 1, 2021 to July 1, 2020, according to The News & Observer.

Late last year, the board approved a $15 minimum wage for essential workers in the school district, including custodians, bus drivers, and cafeteria workers. Among the 1,200 employees working for DPS, about 904 were paid under $15 per hour.

By changing the start date to July 1, half of the yearly amount will be going to employees as retroactive pay this year. This means that DPS staff will be receiving a check of around $600 in the next two months.

Xenia Carcamo, a lead custodian at Forest View Elementary School in Durham, told The News & Observer she is excited for her staff. “Because in this pandemic time, everybody is so tight with money. And we have a lot of stress,” she said.

Michelle Burton, the president of the Durham Association of Educators, told WRAL-TV that the pay raise was very needed.

“It’s been very stressful for a lot of our teachers and for our classified staff, thinking about the safety and well-being not only of the kids that we teach but of our own families,” Burton said. “This retroactive pay will help district workers pay for things to help support their families, to help pay their rent, to pay for food. We want to make sure that they have the resources and wages that they can continue to live here and be productive citizens.”

The move to pay essential workers at least $15 an hour has become not only a priority in cities scattered across the country, but also nationally. Last week U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order to be passed by Congress for a $15 an hour federal minimum wage increase in his first 100 days in office—on or before April 30. Earlier this week, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives reintroduced the Raise the Wage Act, a bill that would increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour by 2025, which would benefit 32 million—or 20% —of essential workers, CNBC-TV reports. Eight states and Washington, D.C., have approved the $15 per hour minimum wage increase, the latest one being Florida in November.