"Dozens of University of Virginia students stormed the president's office on Tuesday, waving super-sized $10 bills and loudly demanding a "living wage" for university workers.

The late-afternoon rally was an attempt to re-energize an eight-year-long student effort to increase all UVa workers' minimum wage to $10.72 an hour.

After a brief series of speeches in the shadow of the Rotunda, students led members of the university and Charlottesville communities to the steps of Madison Hall, where most dropped green photocopies of a $10 bill on the desk of President John T. Casteen III's secretary. Their march into Madison Hall ceased when university police denied the protesters re-entry into the building because their presence was disrupting business, said university spokeswoman Carol Wood.

The bills' backsides said: "Dear President Casteen, We have come here today to ask you: Pay workers $10.72. We've told you before that they deserve more, please make a change long overdue."

The university's minimum hire rate for full-time staff is $8.88 an hour, a wage, the protesters said, that insufficiently covers the cost of living in the Charlottesville area and elsewhere.

"To me, the stark realities of our condition are, first, that hundreds of the university's employees are paid poverty wages; second, that the gap between the highest and lowest paid in the entire university community is wider than it has ever been; and third, that these realities are not acknowledged for what they are," said Paul Gaston, a former UVa professor who spoke during the rally.

According to a report compiled by the UVa Living Wage Campaign, $8.88 an hour adds up to an annual income of $18,468. If two adults worked full-time with an $8.88 hourly wage, the total family income would be $39,636.

As of last month, the wage necessary for someone working full-time to meet his or her family's needs in the Charlottesville metropolitan area was $22,296 for an adult or an annual family income of $44,592 for two working adults and two children, the report says.

Fewer than 100 full-time UVa employees make less than $9.30 an hour, Wood said, emphasizing that the pay is for entry-level workers who are hired with the expectation they'll eventually climb the pay scale. The additional value of benefits is not included in the wage rate, she said. The rate of $8.88 an hour translates to $11.54 an hour with benefits, she added.

But supporters of the $10.72 living wage would like to see a single wage floor for all employees, regardless of whether they receive benefits from the university. And, they added, inflation and a high cost of living in the Charlottesville area make the situation even worse. In one recent report, the city's cost of living was 9 percent above the national average. The university isn't doing enough, they said.

"The movement is one for better wages, adequate groceries on the table, decent shelter and healthcare assurance, but it is ultimately about whether all members of the university community are respected for their contribution to fulfilling the university's educational mission, or whether poverty and inequality will continue to exist side by side with lessons in ethics and citizenship," Gaston said.

But there's been a "great deal" of movement in salaries during the past several years and improving workers' salaries continues to be a priority of the university administration, Wood said. During the last three years, the university has invested $10 million in additional compensation for classified employees and its minimum hiring rates are "far above" those required by law, she said.

Supporters of the $10.72 living wage said that the university has increased pay for only direct employees, not for some workers employed by companies contracted by the university. According to Wood, the university cannot legally dictate what its contractors must pay its employees, but one of the university's largest contractors has voluntarily matched the university's minimum hiring rate for several years and will again increase salaries in June of this year.

Edward Anderson, 52, used to be one of these workers. He was one of a few current or former workers who attended the rally. The large demonstration of student support was important, he said.

"It shows they care and appreciate the workers," Anderson said.

Marc Nahmani, a graduate student in psychology, attended the rally to demonstrate his solidarity.

The rally is a sign of the "growing incompetence of the university in terms of paying their workers a wage that's commensurate with what others are paid in Charlottesville," Nahmani said.

Students are standing up for the workers because many workers are scared of losing their jobs if they speak up, said Abby Bellows, a fourth-year and one of the rally's organizers.

"It's becoming clearer and clearer the culture of fear the workers at this university are living in," Bellows said. "It's our obligation to assert that a living wage is a human right."

Supporters of the $10.72 wage seek a collaborative relationship with the administration, Bellows said.

Raising workers' wages will be an ongoing issue at the university.

"The university is constantly reevaluating wages to determine appropriate rates," Wood said. "We're hoping to have greater flexibility to adjust wages as a result of the Higher Education Restructuring, and we believe this will give us the ability to do what the state has not be able to do."" (Melanie Mayhew, The Daily Progress, February 22, 2006)

Contact Melanie Mayhew at (434) 978-7265 or mmayhew@ dailyprogress.com.