Still, the wages outlined in the new contract will raise the pay of most Harvard janitors. According to the HCECP report, 89 percent of contracted custodial workers and 82 percent of Harvard custodial workers earned less than $10 an hour last year.

The agreement also requires contractors to pay workers comparable wages and benefits and includes a health care plan that does not require worker co-payments.

The contract was ratified by a large majority of Harvard janitors at a meeting Friday.

PSLM member Matthew R. Skomarovsky ’03, who attended some of the contract talks, said he didn’t oppose the ratification but believed it came because janitors felt “they [didn’t] have any other choice.”

“It could be said that whereas workers accepted the wages in the sense that they agreed to the contract, by no means did workers think that those wages were fair or adequate,” Skomarovsky said.

Skomarovsky said he believed Harvard might have made more concessions if the negotiations had continued.

“It’s through continued protest that the janitors were able to win $11.35 to begin with,” he said. “I don’t have much doubt that through continued demonstrations and support from the Harvard community that they would have been able to win significantly more.”

Harvard spokesperson Joe Wrinn declined to comment on PSLM allegations that the new contract still offered janitors poverty wages.

Union officials could not be reached for comment over the weekend.

The University has begun talks with dining service workers and security guards and will officially reopen their contracts in the coming weeks. PSLM members say they will also be involved in these negotiations.

—Staff writer Elisabeth S. Theodore can be reached at theodore@fas.harvard.edu.