BARGAINING UPDATE
December 11, 2023
The data shows that our salaries are falling behind and the administration must act
Takeaways:
- We presented a counterproposal on compensation that would establish a fair salary floor for all Pitt faculty and make sure our salaries keep up with the cost of living.
- If you haven’t done so yet, please sign a membership card to give us power at the bargaining table.
We met with the administration on December 7 and presented our counterproposal on compensation. We continue to demand a $60,000 floor for all full-time faculty (prorated for part-time faculty) and real cost of living adjustments, as well as experience and promotion increases. At the beginning of the bargaining session, several of our colleagues from across the University, who the administration wants to exclude from a $60,000 salary floor, spoke about their work and the struggles of living on salaries below this floor. We followed their stories with data to support our proposed salary increases and wage floors. These data show that the cost of living increases Pitt has given over the last decade, and especially in recent years, have fallen significantly behind inflation, that there are substantial gender inequities in salaries at Pitt, that many part-time faculty are making poverty wages, and that Pitt salaries at every campus are well below our peers.
Salary Floor: The administration’s compensation proposal excludes certain groups of full-time faculty, including instructors, visiting faculty, and Falk School faculty. Because these groups are among the lowest paid, this means that the administration is demanding that nearly 60% of the faculty currently make less than the $60k floor be excluded from it—the very people who need this raise the most. In addition, excluding these faculty will exacerbate the gender gap in pay at Pitt, because these groups are also disproportionately comprised of non-male faculty:
The administration’s proposal also includes floors for part-time faculty on a per-credit basis. When scaled to a full-time salary, these floors are among the lowest of any employment sector. In fact, they are demanding that part-time faculty at the regional campuses work for lower pay than workers in any other sector of the economy, including fast food workers. The table below shows the administration’s and our proposed weekly earnings for Pitt part-time faculty at the Oakland campus and at the regional campuses alongside sectors earning comparable wages. Our proposed floor would give part-time faculty equal pay for equal work and put their compensation in line with comparable professionals.
Cost of Living Adjustments: Pitt’s official compensation policy states that the real value of our wages should be maintained over time: “The amount for maintenance of real salary allocated to each unit will be equal to the salaries of all faculty and staff in that unit times the percentage of the previous calendar year's increase in the Consumer Price Index.” However, as shown below, our recent maintenance increases have resulted in a 7% gap in the real value of our salaries over the past three years. We developed our counterproposal with these numbers in mind and have proposed a 9.5% raise for this academic year (retroactive to July 1) and 5.2% raises for the next two years, in addition to annual experience increases.
Peer Institutions: Pitt’s existing policy also says that our salaries should be at or above the median of faculty salaries at peer institutions. But our salaries are consistently near the bottom of salaries at public AAU institutions—Pitt’s standard benchmarking group. This remains true when broken out by rank, and when adjusted for regional cost of living.
In recent months, both Pitt’s Chancellor and President of the Board of Trustees have made statements that indicate that they are aware that the administration has been falling short, that our salaries are not commensurate with our AAU peers, and that they are committed to closing this gap. Nevertheless, the administration’s opening proposal on maintenance increases falls far short of this goal, despite the fact that Pitt has maintained an average budget surplus of over $300 million over the past ten years.
The counterproposal we presented on compensation addresses all of these issues and will make major progress in addressing the salary inequities and financial struggles that many Pitt faculty experience. It recognizes the many talents we bring to our work, our education and training, and our value to the university. We will continue to demand that the administration take our proposals seriously and hold them accountable to their own policies and statements. Together, we make this university the powerhouse of research and education that it is, and we deserve to be paid fairly.
Our power at the table comes from you! If you have not signed a membership card yet, please request one now.
In solidarity,
Your bargaining committee
Tyler Bickford (chair), Professor, English, Oakland
Pete Bell, Teaching Assistant Professor, Chemistry, Oakland
Nicholas Bircher, Part-time Professor, Nurse Anesthesia, Oakland
Chloe Dufour, Faculty Librarian, ULS, Oakland
Anthony Fabio, Associate Professor, Epidemiology (Public Health), Oakland
Lech Harris (secretary), Part-time Instructor, English, Oakland
James Hill (archivist), Visiting Assistant Professor, History, Oakland
Megan O’Brien, Master Teacher, Falk Laboratory School, Oakland
Sabrina Robinson, Part-time Instructor, Slavic, Oakland
Evan Schneider, Assistant Professor, Physics and Astronomy, Oakland
Paul Scott, Assistant Professor, Health and Community Systems (Nursing), Oakland
Jeffrey Shook, Professor, Social Work, Oakland
Stacey Triplette, Associate Professor, Spanish, Greensburg
Abagael West, Teaching Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences, Oakland
Links!
The counterproposal we presented on compensation addresses all of these issues and will make major progress in addressing the salary inequities and financial struggles that many Pitt faculty experience. It recognizes the many talents we bring to our work, our education and training, and our value to the university. We will continue to demand that the administration take our proposals seriously and hold them accountable to their own policies and statements. Together, we make this university the powerhouse of research and education that it is, and we deserve to be paid fairly.
Our power at the table comes from you! If you have not signed a membership card yet, please request one now.
In solidarity,
Your bargaining committee
Tyler Bickford (chair), Professor, English, Oakland
Pete Bell, Teaching Assistant Professor, Chemistry, Oakland
Nicholas Bircher, Part-time Professor, Nurse Anesthesia, Oakland
Chloe Dufour, Faculty Librarian, ULS, Oakland
Anthony Fabio, Associate Professor, Epidemiology (Public Health), Oakland
Lech Harris (secretary), Part-time Instructor, English, Oakland
James Hill (archivist), Visiting Assistant Professor, History, Oakland
Megan O’Brien, Master Teacher, Falk Laboratory School, Oakland
Sabrina Robinson, Part-time Instructor, Slavic, Oakland
Evan Schneider, Assistant Professor, Physics and Astronomy, Oakland
Paul Scott, Assistant Professor, Health and Community Systems (Nursing), Oakland
Jeffrey Shook, Professor, Social Work, Oakland
Stacey Triplette, Associate Professor, Spanish, Greensburg
Abagael West, Teaching Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences, Oakland
Links!
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