A Message from Faculty Association Chair Dwight Read on Faculty Pay
Annual Faculty Equity Adjustment
The Faculty Association proposes a new annual Faculty Equity Adjustment to Salary that could incorporate a number of widely-used indicators, such as the mid-point salary point between UC’s Comparison-8 Universities, the level of the regional California Consumer Price Index (CPI), or the increased employee cost of the combined annual benefit increases (such as retirement and health).
The point is that there should be an Annual Faculty Equity Adjustment. We realize that until the California economy recovers and the unending budget crisis is resolved, state funds will not be the source for funding the proposed Annual Faculty Equity Adjustment. Nonetheless, we think it is worthwhile to work out in advance what is needed to keep UC salaries on an even keel and to maintain the excellence of UC faculty.
Background: (please refer to Table 1, 20-Year Faculty Salary Numbers on the UCLA Faculty Assn. website at: http://www.blogger.com/www.uclafaculty.org )
For the past ten years, the total increase in salary for UC faculty has been 11.7%, which averages out to a little over 1% per year. The total CA CPI for this same period of time shows a 25.8% increase. When taking inflation into account, the real increase to UC faculty salaries in the last ten years disappears and results in a 11.2% loss [(1.117/1.258)=.888; 1-.888=11.2%]. The US Average salary increase for faculty nationwide during this same period was 30.5%, and the US CPI 25.4%. Reduced to real terms (1.305/1.254=1.041; 1-1.041=4.1%), the Average US salary increase drops to 4.1%, a low figure but still a gain and not a loss.
The earlier decade, from 1990-1999, was much kinder to UC faculty. The total salary increase was 51%, while the total CA CPI increase was 27%, leaving a positive increase of 18.9%. During this same decade, the US Average total salary increase was 34.3%, and with a total US CPI of 29.3%, resulting in a US Average salary increase of 3.9% in real terms.
The salary statistics that show an 11.2% loss in real terms in UC salaries over the last decade include all sources of compensation—scale salaries; off-scale supplements; CAP (Capital Accumulation Program) contributions from UCRP; special faculty parity contributions designed to offset cuts and zero COLAs; and market adjustments.
The old process of setting UC faculty salary increases by comparing UC faculty salaries to a group of 8 Comparison universities was widely accepted. Every year the California Post-Secondary Education Commission (CPEC) calculated the parity increase needed to keep UC faculty salaries balanced between the 4 private and 4 public peer universities, but in recent years, the increase was never implemented. CPEC no longer produces its annual report on salaries, but others have continued to calculate the lag for UC. For 2009-10, the UC Academic Council found that UC faculty salaries on average lag the Comp 8 by 11%, ignoring the furloughs. (See http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/senate/committees/ucfw/faculty_salary_gap.pdf )
Current UC Environment
Action Plan
The amount should be set each year by the Systemwide Faculty Welfare Committee in consultation with the Academic Council and the Systemwide Committee on Planning and Budget. Without such a regular, predictable, annual equity increase to the salaries of Senate faculty, UC risks treating this group of employees with an indifference to their value to the university as a whole that will have a profoundly negative effect on the University in future years. The media has touted the abuses in UC Executive Compensation increases and the current pressure to increase their retirement income; and everyone has heard UC’s defense—if UC Executives are not paid competitive salaries they will leave UC. But we have not heard enough about the role of the faculty in establishing the reputation and rank of a university. The faculty are the reason students come to UC from California, the nation, and all corners of the globe.
If UC fails to take measures to protect the economic interests of the faculty and institute an Annual Faculty Equity Adjustment, and the next decade creeps along in budget fits and starts similar to the last one, then one can predict that UC will be a different place in 2020. Perhaps it will be full of the most highly sought after executives in the nation, unmatched by UC’s peer institutions, but who are leading an institution, which can no longer recruit and retain the best faculty in the nation.
Do you agree that there should be an Annual Faculty Equity Adjustment?
Post your comment on the Faculty Assn. blogsite at http://www.uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/
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