CSU, union differ sharply on how salaries compare
San Francisco Chronicle 3/25/07
CSU negotiators say they have made a generous offer to the faculty that totals 24.5 percent in raises during the four-year contract, but union leaders say the offer contains only 14 to 15 percent that are guaranteed.
Union leaders say their demands would cost about $100 million during the four-year contract; CSU executives say union demands would total $472 million.
Both sides cite different studies in comparing the compensation of CSU faculty to other colleges.
The California Postsecondary Education Commission found that CSU faculty salaries in 2005-06 lagged behind those at 20 comparable institutions by 14 percent.
San Francisco-based Mercer Human Resource Consulting concluded that, when salaries as well as benefits such as health care and retirement pensions are considered, CSU faculty receive compensation that totals 5 percent more than the total compensation packages received by faculty at comparable institutions.
Union leaders insist that the Mercer study was flawed because of incomplete data from participating institutions and questionable calculations regarding the total value of certain benefits.
Faculty representatives point out that 3 percent of CSU's 24.5 percent pay raise offer is contingent on getting extra money from the governor and Legislature. Another 3 percent has been offered as part of a merit pay program, which the union is not inclined to accept, saying that such programs are often abused by administrators.
Union leaders say the remaining 4 percent difference involves the cost of periodic "step increases." They say new money is not needed each year to pay for step increases due to the turnover of newcomers and retirees entering and leaving the system.
And they stress that other state agencies don't receive additional funding to pay for step increases; however, CSU management says step increases would cost the university tens of millions of dollars a year.
Jason Singley, an assistant professor of physics at Cal State East Bay, said faculty members deserve a substantial pay raise because they carry heavy course loads.
"Faculty have a 12-month, full-time job, and nine of those months we are teaching classes full time," he said. "The other three months of the year we have a variety of professional activities: doing professional research, course development and developing lab work. ... It's a tremendous amount of work to prepare and teach those classes effectively. We're not sitting on the beach during the summer."
Singley, who began teaching at CSU in 2003, said he makes about $55,000 a year, having taken a pay cut of "a couple thousand dollars" from his previous job doing postdoctoral research at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He has had one pay raise in the past four years -- a 3.5 percent increase in 2005.
"The cost of living rises about 3 or 4 percent a year, so ... the effective salaries of our faculty have been cut drastically during that time period," he said.