WFF Facility Services, Loyola’s custodial services provider, gave out raises to their employees last August, but not all of the staff were pleased with their increase.

“Pay raises (were) a joke,” said Fred Scott, a WFF worker who works in the Danna Center. “And on top of that, it’s almost as if (management) wants you to bow to them.”

Many among the staff echoed this sentiment.

Loyola wrote a stipulation into their contract with WFF Services that requires them to pay their staff at Loyola a “social justice wage.”

Michael Dixon, a 24-year employee for WFF at Loyola, said that he believes the wage paid to the housekeeping staff at Loyola is not a “social justice wage” because “it doesn’t balance with the cost of living … You either have to be on another (government) program or have another job.”

Sheila Cernicek, human resource manager for Clean-Tech Company, WFF’s sister company, said in an e-mail that she believes WFF employees are receiving socially just wages.

According to Cernicek, WFF Loyola’s new hires receive a starting wage of $7.25 per hour, plus benefits including health care, sick leave, holiday pay, vacation pay, dental coverage and life insurance.

Tulane University’s custodial provider, UGL-Unicco, starts their new hires at $8 per hour and also offers benefits.

According to Cernicek, roughly 60 percent of WFF employees at Loyola are receiving less than $18,000 but more than $14,000 in yearly salaries.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the poverty threshold income level for a family of three was $17,158 in 2009.

Dixon said that although most of the custodial staff are married and have a second income stream at home, he knows some WFF Loyola housekeepers who are single mothers and are struggling with low pay.

According to Cernicek, salaries are reviewed on an annual basis and raises range from two to three percent.

Cernicek did not respond to questions regarding criteria for determining wages, but did say that on-site management performs evaluations and that “100 percent of our employees received raises last August.”

“Most employees in any given industry make claims that they are not paid adequately,” Cernicek said in response to employee claims of low pay. “WFF pays wages consistent with the prevailing wages paid to housekeepers in the New Orleans area. Work loading and compensatory practices are consistent with past practices at Loyola University.”

Jean-Paul Arguello can be reached at [email protected]