Still, Escobari adds, broken down into anhourly wage, his earnings amount to "less thanminimum wage."
"Nobody is getting rich at HSA," he says."Nobody here considers themselves overpaid."
And Escobari says he doesn't believe theattraction of big bucks is an undue motive for HSAemployees. "Are people mesmerized by the money? Idon't think so," he says.
But Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57, amember of HSA's board of directors, says therehave been problems in the past.
"There have been people at times in historywhere we've worried a bit," he says.
Indeed, outside of management ranks, wagesdiminish considerably. In fiscal 1993, accordingto tax records, HSA paid out $916,240 in salariesto 954 student employees, working out to anaverage of about $960 per student. But thosefigures include the five-digit salaries ofEscobari, Ford and a small number of othermanagers, meaning that most students earned a fewhundred dollars at most from HSA.
HSA Controller David T. McCarthy says thecompany tries to minimize discrepancies inemployee compensation levels.
"The [board of directors'] goal is not to pay afew people extremely well, but to contributereasonable amounts to a number of students payingfor financial aid," McCarthy says.
Financial aid, however, is a sticky topic withHSA's officers. Escobari, Olken, McCarthy andJewett acknowledge that they have no idea how manyHSA employees really need the money.
And the officials concede that, while thecompany was created to employ Harvard students inneed of financial assistance, anyone can work atHSA, whether in need of financial assistance ornot, and the company maintains no records ofwhich, or how many, students are on financial aid.
"[The percentages of students on financial aidare] probably fairly close to those of theUniversity as a whole," ventures PublishingDirector Peter J. Keith '94.
"We have students who work here who do not needmoney and we have people here who absolutely haveto have a job in order to stay in college," saysOlken, referring further questions on the subjectto HSA board member Martha H. Homer, Harvard'sassociate director of financial aid for studentemployment.
But Homer says she, too, doesn't know preciselyhow many HSA students actually work there ofnecessity.
"By far, most students use it to earn a smallamount," Homer says. "And [for] lots of students,that's all they need, a little bit every now andthen. But the ones who get fully engaged in theactivities of HSA, they do very well."