The Answer to the Ultimate Question.......is ultimately muddled.

If the living wage is $11.61, and 40% of Bon Appetit workers are getting paid below this figure, it would seem as though Bon Appetit is in contract violation with the University Living Wage Policy.

However, there is a loophole in the San Jose Living Wage law. This loophole was discovered by Pat Wilkonson, who manages contracts for the university in a recent interview with Nina Jenkins.

Bon Appetit workers are members of a union. Therefore, as long as the union bargained for the contract, Santa Clara is technically following the San Jose law, even if workers are getting paid far below a living wage.

Bon Appetit is not in legal trouble. HOWEVER, the fact remains that workers are getting paid less than a living wage. Perhaps the signs claiming the adherence to the living wage policy (see above) found all over Benson Center are a bit misleading.

This leads us to question the San Jose living wage document itself. The workers are unionized, but the union is not strong. Many workers do not know who the union rep is, or what the local union name is. If the San Jose document relies on strong unions to enforce living wages, and the union at Santa Clara is weak, the workers are left with no leg to stand on.

There are no grounds for legal battles, but the ethical question must be asked: Should the worker not be paid a living wage simply because they have union status? Pat Wlikonson revealed that the union rep. did not attend the majority of the contract bargaining. How can the union choose to supersede a living wage, or bargain for one, if they are not present? Show the contract have been approved, given these circumstances?

Is our idea of a living wage fundamentally flawed?

If a living wage is mean to bring people over the poverty line, and the federal poverty line is not an adequate measure of the national picture for poverty, maybe we need to redine what we think of as poverty.

Clearly, the quest to find a truth about the living wage at Santa Clara simply raises more questions.

To be more involved in the developments of this issue, please contact njenkins@scu.edu for updates on student worker solidarity.