Western Oregon University Federation of Teachers American Federation of Teachers

Western Oregon University Federation of Teachers
American Federation of Teachers - Local 2278

[Who are we?] [What are we?] [Where are we?] [How are we?] [Why are we?] [FAQ] [Bylaws & Constitution]

Information on an issue of importance to the faculty and a key part of contract negotiations

(prepared in 2001 by Bargaining Team member Ed Dover)

Faculty Salaries and the Salary Step System

Faculty salaries in general, and the salary step system in particular, have been the most contentious issues in WOU collective bargaining for the past six years. The strike vote of November 2001 (81 yes, 7 no) was a direct result of administrative efforts to destroy the step system. This brief essay is designed to inform the reader of the history of recent salary disputes and explain the depth of faculty commitment to the salary step system.

The union has pursued two salary goals over the past few years: the creation of internal equity and external equity. Internal equity occurs when salaries are free of administratively created discrimination. External equity occurs when WOU salaries are comparable to those of institutions of similar sizes and missions in other states.

The creation of the salary step system in November 1997 resolved all of WOU's long-standing internal equity problems and the significant pay increases of 1999 and 2000 (15.6 percent) brought about major gains in external equity. The strike vote of 2001 occurred because of faculty efforts to preserve those gains.

Western Oregon University has a long history of salary discrimination relating to sex, length of service, academic discipline, and management favoritism. This discrimination led to a class action lawsuit by women faculty during the 1980's and was one of the driving motives behind the creation of the union. In addition, legislative irresponsibility, economic recessions, and anti-tax ballot measures helped keep the salaries of all Oregon faculties among the lowest in the nation.

The discriminatory practices ended with the creation of the salary step system. The system contains 30 steps, or salary levels, which increase at two percent intervals. Step 1 is $37,008 and Step 30 is $65,889. Newly hired persons are placed at Step 1, although there are provisions for higher placement based on experience. Each person then advances one step for each year of service and four steps for each promotion. For example, an Associate Professor with eight years of service would begin a new academic year at Step 13, having received eight steps for annual service and four steps for rank. In addition, persons from two market-impacted disciplines, Business and Computer Science, are given ten additional steps.

With the step system, salary increases at WOU are based on three values: service, merit, and cost of living. Service increases happen with the annual step advances while merit increases are acquired through the four step bonuses that come with each promotion. Both service and merit increases occur at the beginning of an academic year in September. Cost of living increases are accomplished through percentage additions to existing salaries and generally take place at the middle of an academic year. The next one is set for three percent in March 2003. Prior to the creation of the step system, WOU salary increases were based only on merit and cost of living.

The major battle between the union and administration over the step system has taken place over annual service increases. The administration has opposed them in each of the last two bargaining sessions and has accepted them only after facing a serious threat of a faculty strike. In both 1999 and 2001 the administration refused to honor the collective bargaining agreement and pay the increases at the beginnings of those academic years. It then advanced bargaining proposals to eliminate service increases from future increases. After failing with this approach, the administration then tried to rename service increases as cost of living additions, although it offered no additional money beyond what the legislature had already appropriated for all state workers.

Why are service based salary increases so important for faculty? It is because they deliver financial rewards for academic work that cannot be provided by the other forms of salary increases such as promotions or cost of living additions. They also eliminate salary compression and administrative patronage.

Merit increases accomplish little in way of improving salaries because they are so infrequent. There are only two academic promotions available for faculty members, from Assistant Professor to Associate and from Associate to Full, and they occur after intervals of several years. Moreover, cost of living additions are usually so small they can do little more than help keep pace with inflation.

In contrast, annual salary advancements through steps have the desirable effect of immediately rewarding faculty for service to the university. The average step increase is about $1000; a figure the union believes is a reasonable reward for a year of service. Step increases provided in conjunction with cost of living additions help keep faculty salaries at or close to national averages in a way that is impossible through cost of living additions only.

Steps also mitigate the effect of salary compression. Compression occurs when national market pressures force initial hiring salaries to increase at rates faster than cost of living additions. The effect is that salaries of faculty with many years of service become nearly identical to the salaries of the newly hired. Faculty are therefore punished for their service to the university rather than rewarded.

Finally, the step system prevents administrators from dispensing personal patronage through arbitrary hiring salaries and selective increases available only to their friends and supporters. These practices were the primary causes of WOU's sordid history of sex discrimination and have been the fuel on which faculty discontent has burned. The step system eliminates all of these evils and prevents their return.

We believe the step system is a just solution to the long-standing problem of internal salary equity at WOU. We also believe that it provides a very solid foundation for the problem of external salary equity. As our strike vote and the subsequent preparations for an actual strike demonstrated, we are STRONGLY COMMITTED to its preservation and WILL STAND AND BE COUNTED if and when any administration of the future attempts to undermine it.