Union Salary Proposal Raises Payroll Costs by 22 Percent
Barbara Altmann, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Professor of French
April 11, 2013
All of us at the University of Oregon share a responsibility to be good stewards of the public’s resources and to be cognizant of tuition costs borne by students and their families. That’s why the University’s budget experts have spent considerable time analyzing the costs associated with the salary package put on the negotiating table by United Academics.
The union’s March 19 salary proposal seeks across-the-board raises for all bargaining unit members of 1.5 % in fiscal year 13, 1.5 % in FY 14 and 4 % in FY 15. The union is also asking for money to be set aside for merit raises, equity adjustments and minimum salary floors.
The FY13-14 cost-of-living increases are actually very similar to a recent University offer made to all faculty last month.
However, the union refused that offer and instead brought to the table a three-year package that boosts its members’ compensation by 22 percent, or $20.2 million.
Cumulative compensation costs for union members would rise from $93 million to more than $113 million in 2015. Those recurring costs would be built into the University’s budgets in the years to come.
The most profound effect may be on tuition. According to the University’s analysis, the union’s proposed salary increases equate to a 7.1% percent tuition increase.
While the union maintains the university can come up with the money simply by “shifting priorities,” the reality is that UO is a pretty lean operation. No part of the University can absorb cuts without doing damage.
Data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) shows that in fiscal year 2011 the University of Oregon could expend, per student, only 59.5 percent as much as our Association of American Universities (AAU) public peers and only 56 percent as much as the average of our OUS-defined peers. IPEDS Data
The union says there are too many administrators at the UO, but the IPEDS data shows the opposite. UO operates with 40.3 percent of the executive and administrative staff per student of its AAU peers and 36.2 percent of our OUS-defined peers.
The University is committed to reaching agreement on a contract as quickly as possible, but our costing of the union’s compensation and benefit proposals highlights the importance of getting the numbers right. The decisions made on this first-ever faculty union contract will dictate spending and policy on campus well into the future.
