BERKELEY -- Critics question why some top executives at the University of California received pay hikes despite a funding crisis that is forcing the system to cut enrollment and contemplate raising student fees.

The incoming chancellor of the UC San Diego campus is being paid $350,000, nearly $70,000 more than her predecessor. In February, a new UC provost was appointed with a salary of $380,000, almost $100,000 more than the previous incumbent.

Searches are under way for new chancellors at the Berkeley and Santa Cruz campuses and critics predict more hikes.

"Each time they raise one person's salary, it becomes a justification for raising the salaries of other people in similar positions and those below them," said Claudia Horning, state president of UC's clerical union, whose membership did not get a raise this year. "But of course this logic applies only at the top administration."

UC officials say the system's executive salaries have lagged behind those at comparable institutions for years and they must try to pay market rate to get the best candidates.

"UC is in a very tough spot," said spokesman Paul Schwartz. "We know that morale is down because of lack of salary increases. We'd like to raise everyone's salaries to where they should be, but we need the resources for that."

An independent study found the average UC chancellor salary of $290,490 is 34 percent less than the average for chancellors at 26 public and private institutions. Looking at just public schools, UC pay was 2 percent below the average.

George Blumenthal, vice chair of the faculty academic council, said that the provost salary went up because of a previous raise to a senior vice president who had gotten an offer elsewhere. The UC president's pay also went up, to $395,000, when a new man was hired for the job last year.

Blumenthal said the market is demanding those kind of salaries and "I want the best people."

At the same time, he's concerned. "I think there is a morale issue for the university, and a sense that the rich are getting richer and the poor aren't."