All my excess live in Texas.

Why is the assumption all jobs should provide a living wage?

I’m reminded of when I lived in Chicago and was at the Drake Hotel having lunch one afternoon. In walks Frank Thomas....White Sox player. He was dressed to the nines and was carrying a briefcase. He was certainly looking very businesslike. He was seated at the table next to mine and after ordering something to drink…

And my guess is that $32 billion generates a large return on an annual basis.

Oi, there is so much to unpack in your comment:

dumb people love to criticize hamilton nolan articles for not “understanding” things that are purely human constructs, as if they are laws of nature.

He’s in the penalty box for ruffing

The above is based on a cursory analysis. I may have made a few minor errors, but overally, Harvard could easily appropriate a few extra basis points a year and ensure that all its staff get a living wage while having essentially zero impact on ongoing operations otherwise.

What I’m saying is that paying these workers a living wage will not impact the money going into the endowment. That is, as you stated, driven by factors unrelated to these salaries.

For those who are going to bitch about the endowment and “how it works”, the endowment is there to provide income for ongoing operations of the University, and a large chunk of that is for ‘general support’. On the other hand, there’s unrestricted net income. Per Harvard’s annual financial reports, Unrestricted Net…

This. The “everyone else is doing it” argument towards mistreating your staff doesn’t apply when you’re supposed to be the pinnacle of higher ed.

Because you want to avoid the look created by this strike.

True, but all of those are normal budgetary events. Organizations often give salary increases with the assumption that their revenues will continue to match pace. When that doesn’t happen they either cut costs or increase their revenues.

I get that. But if the endowment is used to fund the operating budget and the operating budget is where the salaries for staff is drawn from, then you can use the endowment to pay these folks a living wage. Not directly, I get it, but through normal budgetary means.

Right. But the salaries for these workers are covered in the operating budgets, correct?

And salaries for workers are paid out through operating budgets right? If so, then the basic point stands - these schools have enormous endowments that can fund operating budgets that pay their workers a living wage and they are choosing not to do so.

I’m willing to bet Hamilton’s actually familiar with the notion that an endowment funds a university’s operating budget each year (in this case, UC spends 5% of its endowment).

Used to work in the marketing/communications department for a private, Catholic university in Irving, Texas. Wages were pretty good (better than I was making at The Dallas Morning News), but the honeypot for higher-ed jobs is the way they will try and comp you for other things (classes, MBAs, etc.).
Now the major…

Sounds like someone is in the pocket of Big Endowment.

Said the Actress to the Bishop.