Top UH pay raise is $30,000
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
Merit pay increases for University of Hawai'i faculty, as called for in the new contract, will range from a low of about $1,000 to a high of about $30,000 for a researcher who brings in millions in federal grants and has had big salary offers from other institutions, according to UH officials.
Advertiser library photo • April 1, 1999
"We're not going to let our top researchers walk out the door," said Edward Laws, interim vice chancellor for research and graduate studies.
At the University of Hawai'i, students will be learning from a higher-paid faculty as raises kick in this year.
The merit, equity and retention pay raises are in addition to annual raises that are part of the new two-year contract signed after the faculty strike last year.
Those negotiated contract raises, according to terms ratified last year, amount to about 12 percent overall, spread over the two years. There's a flat rate increase this year of $2,325, followed by a 6 percent increase in the second year.
Part of that settlement included special salary adjustments for individual faculty. These salary adjustments are the merit, equity and retention raises that will reward outstanding researchers and teachers and help level the playing field between departments and between Hawai'i and the Mainland.
These raises will amount to around $1.5 million — about 1 percent of the total salary package — and will go to 500 to 600 faculty members throughout the statewide UH system. Several hundred of these raises are still working their way through the evaluation process.
Retention raises, in particular, will account for some of the largest dollar figures, said Ed Yuen, director of collective bargaining for UH.
There will only be a handful of raises in that category, but they will help retain important research faculty who are being pursued by other institutions.
According to protocol, the raises begin in each department with requests from individual faculty members, and follow a prescribed route to President Evan Dobelle's office where they all must go for final approval.
In general, the merit raises hope to bring faculty levels up in departments where salary levels have been especially low.
"Some are so underpaid," Yuen said.
Extra money — beyond the $1.5 million — may also be used for some raises in departments that have federal money for that use, Yuen said.
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
