Federal Work Study and on-campus employment are important components of maintaining college affordability. But assessing the distribution of financial aid should take precedent when having a job while attending school is not a necessity for all student workers.

New York University announced Thursday that it will adopt a $15 per hour minimum wage for Work-Study recipients and other student workers in the 2018-19 academic school year. The increase will work in three phases, starting with a base of $12 an hour next year. Andrew Hamilton, the president of NYU, said in a memo that the move comes as a part of making NYU more affordable after students have raised fiscal concerns.

NYU’s action comes as New York state’s own minimum wage legislation is coursing its way through Albany. But, in cases like those of NYU and other universities that may be considering a similar measure, more emphasis should be placed on fairly leveling the financial aid playing field by redistributing funds accordingly for students who are in need than increasing student wages across the board.

Student workers — including those who participate in Work-Study — at NYU are currently covered by New York state’s $9 minimum wage. Hamilton said he collaborated with the Budget Office and other administrative members to assess student pay practices so that determining pay levels for student work is more effective with straightforward hiring processes.

But a universal minimum of $15 per hour within university communities may lead to a system in which students who are not employed out of necessity — but to more comfortably enjoy their college experience — are receiving extraneous funds that could have been more effectively invested in enhanced financial aid packages to help students pay off student loans and other imperative academic costs.

Although the memo did not specify exactly how NYU will be funding the difference for these raises, if other college campuses were to follow suit, institutions should be careful to ensure that the wage increases would not spur counterintuitive costs — including tuition hikes or additional fees — to cancel out the funds students would be receiving.

And while a wage increase for Work-Study students alone could warrant a discussion, universities should take into consideration that the comprehensive restructuring of a financial aid system would directly benefit students who are in need, before financially-sound student workers receive what could be considered an unnecessary raise.