Ryan said that early in his tenure, higher wages were identified as an important issue for the school and the community.

“We realized that among community issues, number one was jobs and wages. There are a lot of people interested in this issue and our [Board of Visitors] was interested, too. If we wanted to build stronger relationships in the community, this was an issue we needed to address,” Ryan said.

“We had been talking about what would make a university not only great, but also good,” he said. “We made the case that a great and good university would treat its people well.”

The contractors provide services that UVa has decided not to provide itself, such as dining hall service and child care. They represent about 90% of the contract employees at the university, officials said.

“We realize that working with contractors who pay their employees themselves is decidedly different than working with our own employees,” Ryan said. “We are grateful that we were able to get all of our major contractors to agree with us.”

Promoters of a living wage have sought wage hikes for UVa contractors since the 1990s.