Rise in Minimum Wage Rate To Miss Student Employees

The University will not raise the pay of all student employees to a dollar an hour despite the new Federal minimum wage rate, Nicholai F. Wessel, associate director of Personnel, announced yesterday.

Unless a test case determines that the law, effective Thursday, applies to student jobs, Wessel said, there will be no substantial increase in the college wage rates. The law provides for an hourly minimum of one dollar for work in interstate commerce.

"Added Flavor"

Only a few students working in the libraries and the dining halls receive less than one dollar per hour. "But there is an added advantage to most of these jobs, Wessel said, "such as extra study time in the library and free meals in the dining halls."

There will be no directive to the department heads to increase wages for the college and high school students who are employed by the University, Wessel stated. "If they decide a boy can do a man-size job," he added, "they will raise his pay to a dollar."

The State law which will raise wages to a minimum of 90 cents an hour, effective April 1, may not affect pay rates for student jobs, according to Representative James H. Kelly of Boston, member of the Committee on Labor and Industry. Wages for non-industrial jobs are determined by autonomous wage boards, Kelly explained.