FMU raises minimum wage

The Student Government Association (SGA) achieved one of its goals after FMU’s decision to raise the minimum wage to $8 per hour.

On Nov. 12, 2020, the SGA senate passed Resolution 107 to raise the student worker minimum wage by 75 cents.

After proposing the bill, and taking it through the proper channels of confirming the resolution, Tymoshio Robinson, SGA president and a senior political science major, took the results to FMU President Carter.

“That’s the way it works,” Carter said. “It’s supposed to go that way. You come up with an initiative, you pass it and you recommend it to the administration. If it’s a good initiative, we act on it and we put it into place.”

Shortly after Robinson’s meeting with Carter, all the faculty and staff on campus received an email about the new changes.

Robinson proposed Resolution 107 in a package of legislation he created entitled “Omnibus 2020: To Advocate. To Govern. To Represent. Your SGA.”

The Robinson administration’s one and only goal was to meet the members of FMU’s entire student body where they were.

Robinson said the passing of this resolution was special to him because it was one of the main reasons he decided to begin his journey in SGA.

“When I joined SGA three years ago, tackling the campus minimum wage was one of my main reasons for running for my seat,” Robinson wrote in a Facebook post.

According to Robinson, he figured that it would take a while to make this goal a reality.

“When I presented this resolution, I did so under the impression that it would take an entire semester to advocate and eventually get the increased proposal accomplished,” Robinson said.

Carter approved the increase after hearing the reasons behind it and that it went through the proper channels. 

“Hearing him say, ‘Oh, we can do that,’ was an amazing feeling,” Robinson said.

Carter said his motivation behind increasing the minimum wage was wanting to make sure students had enough resources to get what they needed.

“There are many of our students on campus that are involved in working on campus and work-study activities because they want to get the experience,” Carter said. “But almost all of our students are engaged in working on campus because they need the money.”

Robinson said the resolution will help all students, specifically first generation and financially independent college students.

“I was one of those students,” Robinson said. “It took me two years of working at my on-campus job to break the $8 an hour threshold.”

Carter said he is hopeful this resolution will have a positive impact on the FMU community.

“It’s not a big increase, but it is the beginning of what may be some continual increases down the road,” Carter said.

Robinson said his administration is working toward letting the students know they are here to help them.

“I want students to know that there is a governing entity on campus that truly cares for them and works extremely hard to advocate on behalf of their best interests,” Robinson said.