``Some of the members of the nonprofessional staff are paid so little they're eligible for food stamps,'' said Ira Arlook, a spokesman for Harvard Alumni for a Living Wage.

His group supported students who last May staged a 21-day sit-in at the Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus that sought a minimum wage of $10.25 an hour for janitors and other workers, some of whom earned less than $7 an hour.

The report shows Harvard, with an $18 billion endowment, paid some workers a starting hourly wage of $9.65. About 1,000 workers, including contract workers and those directly employed by Harvard, earned less than $10.68 an hour, qualifying most for the federal food stamp program.

That is far less than the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a cross-town rival which pays its workers $14.39 an hour; or Boston University which pays $14.97 an hour; or Wellesley College which pays $15.26 an hour. MIT's endowment stands at $6.5 billion, while Boston University has $662 million and Wellesley College has about $780 million.

Harvard administrators have remained mum about the issue pending recommendations due later this week from a commission appointed after the May protests. A preliminary report released in October showed the number of Harvard direct employees paid below the so-called ``living wage'' increased from 170 in September 1994 to 424 in March 2001.

The ``Harvard Living Wage Campaign,'' supported by the alumni group, has urged school officials to pay employees at least $12 an hour and subsidize health insurance and child care.

The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group, Wider Opportunities for Women, estimates that parents must each earn at least $11.97 an hour at full-time jobs, generating an annual income of about $43,000, to support a family of four in the Boston area.

The U.S. minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, compared with $6.75 in Massachusetts.

Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited

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