A state legislative panel approved pay raises Wednesday for
all nonunion state employees, totaling up to a 5 percent spread over the next
18 months.
The Joint Committee on Employee Relations, which was composed
of four senators and four representatives, unanimously approved the increase
Wednesday.
Nonunion state employees include elected officials, UW
System faculty and academic staff and some executive branch employees that do
not receive cost of living adjustments — a mechanism that provides incremental
raises to keep wages rising on par with inflation.
Despite the increase for all UW System faculty and academic
staff, UW System spokesperson David Giroux said the increases fall short of
what the university really needs.
"This increase isn't adequate," Giroux said. "The state has
to make a commitment to investing in the human talent that makes everything
work."
Giroux added faculty retention and recruitment is a major
concern of the UW System with the current pay scale, and will continue to be so
in the future if the system is not sufficiently funded.
"We're 8.5 percent behind our peer group in professorial
pay, with academic staff behind over 20 percent," Giroux said. "That gap puts
us at a tremendous competitive disadvantage."
UW ranks among the bottom of the Big Ten, as well as its
American Association of University Professors peer pay group, with full-time UW
professors making an average of $28,000 a year less than their colleagues at
the University of Michigan, which ranks near the top, Giroux said.
Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, said he
felt the 5-percent increase was sufficient.
"The UW officials who say 5 percent is
not an adequate raise should look at the real world — look at the private
sector," Suder said. "I would say to those people that those footing the bill
for this increase — my constituents included — didn't get a 5-percent raise. I
not only think 5 percent is adequate, I think it's generous."
Suder also said there are budgeted
funds at the UW's disposal to retain distinguished faculty.
"I'd invite anyone who says that 5 percent
isn't enough to come up north and tell my constituents, who make $35,000 a year
on average for their families, that 5 percent isn't enough," Suder said.
Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, said the minimal increase is
"disappointing and incredibly short-sighted."
"We, as a body, are being penny-wise and pound-foolish — the
long-term future of the state is tied to the future of the university,”
Black said. “It’s unfortunate that support for the university has become
partisan, but that’s why we have elections.”
Giroux added in the end, UW System
students will be the ones ultimately affected in the future.
“Those who ultimately lose here
are the students," Giroux said. "They expect the best, which we won’t be able
to provide when we are playing on the low end of a slanted field.”