The Johns Hopkins Institutions have released their three-year timetable for raising to $7.75 the minimum hourly wage of their own employees and employees of Hopkins contractors.

The university's president, William R. Brody, announced the increases in a February meeting with students and faculty who had been pressing Hopkins to adopt what they call the "living wage." Brody said at the time that a schedule for the changes would have to be worked out with the university's divisions and with the Johns Hopkins Health System, all of which budget independently.

The lowest-paid university full-time, part-time and limited employees already earn no less than $7.70 an hour; their minimum wage will rise to $7.75 on Jan. 1. Contractor employees--such as food service employees working in campus dining halls--will earn a minimum of $6.75 an hour beginning July 1. That will jump to $7.25 on July 1, 2000, and to $7.75 a year later.

Contractor workers in the health system will get an increase to a minimum of $6 an hour on July 1, $6.50 on July 1, 2000, and $7 a year later. The $7.75 minimum will be in effect for all health system full-time and part-time employees and contractor employees by July 1, 2002.

In all, the changes will affect jobs now held by about 550 employees of the institutions and about 450 employees of contractors. The total number of direct or contractor employees is nearly 24,000.

The current federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour. The "living wage" written into ordinances governing Baltimore City contracts is $7.70, though advocates say the actual wage necessary to sustain a family has risen since that level was established.