State of Wisconsin, UW-Madison to Raise Hourly Minimum Wage for Employees to $15

The State of Wisconsin, including UW-Madison, intends to increase the minimum wage for its hourly employees to $15 an hour, according to statements issued Friday by the university and Gov. Tony Evers.

For university employees, the increase from the current minimum wage of $13.27 per hour, which aligns with the city of Madison’s 2019 living wage, will go into effect in spring 2020. The wage increase stands to benefit university workers mostly in custodial, animal care and food-service positions. It will not affect temporary or student employees, according to the university.

With the state’s proposed compensation plan for 2019-2021, released Friday, Governor Evers is pushing to provide a 2% increase in wages for tens of thousands of state employees in January, and another 2% raise a year later.

Under the plan, all permanent state employees would earn at least $15 an hour by Jan. 3, 2021, with some state workers receiving the increase starting in June. Funding for those raises was included in the 2019-21 state budget, but the specific details still have to be hashed out by the Evers Administration and the Legislature.