SAUGUS — The town’s public school employees received a boost in their wallets at the most recent School Committee meeting.
Superintendent of Schools Erin McMahon was happy to give the raise to these employees, which now meets the state’s new minimum wage rate of $14.25 that was set at the beginning of the year.
“As done in previous years, I’m thrilled that the Saugus School Committee has approved a minimum wage increase from $13.50 to $14.25,” said McMahon. “Many of our hardworking employees, such as bus monitors and lunch aides, will be seeing raises this year thanks to this boost in hourly pay.
“These employees perform invaluable services that assist in the education and well-being of our students and deserve this increase. We hope this adjustment will encourage people to apply for some of the open positions in the district including crossing guards, available on the Saugus Public Schools website.”
The School Committee’s vote to increase the minimum wage is retroactive to Jan. 1. Employees affected by the change include crossing guards, hall monitors, sub clerks, breakfast monitors, and student workers in the extended-day summer programs.
“Increasing the minimum wage is a great thing, I appreciate all they (employees) do,” said School Committee member Dennis Gould.
School Committee member Ryan Fisher was also thrilled to give a boost to these employees’ paychecks.
“I’m thrilled that hourly employees, whether they be lunch monitors or bus monitors or crossing guards, will be seeing bigger paychecks,” he said. “The superintendent made a comment recently that I thought was very apt. ‘If they can’t report to work on a given day, the whole district feels it.'”
