DEANS AND VICE PROVOSTS
DEPARTMENT and PROGRAM CHAIRS
UNIVERSITY LIBRARIAN
RE: UC Santa Cruz 2015 Salary Plan for Senate Faculty
Dear Colleagues:
In November 2014, The Regents approved a 2015-16 budget for UC that included a 3% increase in employee salary, in addition to continued funding for the faculty merit program. On July 1, 2015, President Napolitano directed the campuses to allocate from existing campus funds a salary increase plan for ladder-rank faculty comprised of two parts:
(1) A 1.5% across-the-board increase to on-scale, off-scale, and above-scale salary components for all ladder-rank faculty. The regular ranks and Business/Engineering/ Economics salary scales will also be increased by a corresponding 1.5%.
(2) Discretionary use of up to another 1.5% of the salary increase pool to address issues of equity, compression, inversion, and/or exceptional merit, as revealed by campuses’ recent faculty salary equity studies. Within these criteria, the campuses have discretion to determine a plan to allocate these funds.
The UC Santa Cruz faculty salary equity study did not reveal large inequities in salary on our campus. However, our faculty salaries are still lower than we would prefer in comparison with other UC campuses, leading to overall inequity within the UC system. There is also concern that the incoming market-based salaries for recent hires are approaching or exceeding those of existing more senior faculty, resulting in salary compression and inversion.
In order to address these inequities, the campus will implement a distributed salary adjustment based on rank and step that will avoid further exacerbating compression/ inversion issues caused by large off-scale salaries. A salary increase of slightly above 1.5% will be calculated on the on-scale portion of the salary; this increase will be added to, or for on-scale faculty become, the off-scale salary amount. Ladder-rank faculty at a specific rank and step will receive the same increase, and that amount will rise with progression through the ranks. Therefore, the increase will reflect a faculty member’s rank and step and will thereby help to address issues of compression/inversion. In addition, increasing the off-scale for all ladder-rank faculty will improve our overall equity with other UC campuses.
For ladder-rank faculty at Above Scale status, the discretionary salary adjustment will be calculated based on Professor, Step 9, plus 11 percent.
The exact amount of the campus percent increase will be determined based on the total dollar amount to be allocated. Since that dollar amount is calculated on total salary (on-scale, off-scale, and above-scale amounts), the funds available will yield an increase greater than 1.5% as they will be applied to the on-scale portion of the salary only.
Campus leadership sought the advice of and has received support from the Academic Senate leadership and the Senate Committee for Faculty Welfare on this implementation.
At this time, we have not received confirmation from the Office of the President regarding anticipated salary increases for non-ladder-rank academic appointees. However, our campus plan will extend both increases to all senate faculty and equivalent titles, which includes members of the Lecturer with Security of Employment series; the Astronomer series; the Supervisor of Physical Education series; and faculty summer salary in the Researcher titles.
The salary plan will apply to all senate faculty with eligible appointments active on July 1, 2015, unless stipulated in appointment agreements. The timeline for implementation is currently being developed; however, we expect that senate faculty will see the increase reflected in the September 1, 2015 paychecks retroactive to July 1, 2015.
Additional details and information on the salary plan for non-ladder-rank academic titles will be made available when known. A general announcement to all academic employees will be made once all plans are settled. Please direct questions to the Academic Personnel Office at apo@ucsc.edu.
Sincerely,
Alison Galloway
Campus Provost and
Executive Vice Chancellor
cc: Chancellor Blumenthal
Senate Chair Brenneis
Vice Chancellor Planning & Budget Delaney
AVC Academic Personnel Peterson
Committee on Faculty Welfare Chair Zachos
Academic Personnel Divisional Coordinators
Academic Personnel Office Analysts
Academic Senate Office
Department and Program Managers
