Hampton University President, Dr. William R. Harvey, Announces Increased Hourly Staff Wages and More

HAMPTON, Va. (February 13, 2020) – Hampton University President, Dr. William R. Harvey, announced at a campus-wide staff meeting that he is raising the minimum wage to $12 an hour for on-campus staff.

“As you know, the minimum wage in this country right now is $7.25 and about six or seven years ago, we raised it to $9. Then, about three years ago, we raised it to $10. Effective in March, I’m going to raise it to $12 an hour,” Dr. Harvey said in front of an appreciative crowd of Hampton University Educational Support staff. “Everybody is important to me.”

This latest raise in staff wages is another display of Dr. Harvey’s commitment to the university community. In 2011, Dr. and Mrs. Harvey gave a $166,000 personal gift to HU to support a wage increase to all full-time permanent staff earning less than $8 an hour. Through this donation, 118 full-time, permanent HU staff employees received a wage increase. In 2014, Dr. and Mrs. Harvey gave a $108,403 personal gift to support a wage increase for full-time permanent staff earning less than $9 an hour. In 2017, the minimum wage was raised again for full-time permanent staff to $10 an hour. In 2018, Dr. and Mrs. Harvey gave the faculty and staff an additional 1% raise on top of the annual raise as recommended by their supervisors.

Dr. Harvey also announced a pay increase for the campus’ clerical staff, provided they meet new performance standards. Training will be provided to those individuals who need assistance in learning any additional skill sets.

“These increases are important because they affect your pocketbook, but what it does for me, it says that we care about you and you’re part of the team. You have heard me say before that collective competence is better than individual competence any day. The fact is that it takes all of us to make Hampton go and this is just another way of saying thank you,”  Dr. Harvey added.

The raises in salaries will go into effect March 1.