Posted on: Friday, January 17, 2003

Study shows UH faculty pay lags well behind others

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — A new study of University of Hawai'i faculty salaries has concluded that average pay at UH lags well behind the salaries at comparable Mainland institutions, with senior UH-Manoa faculty trailing by the largest margins.

The study by consultant John Lee of JBL Associates Inc. of Bethesda, Md., found the average faculty salary at UH-Manoa was $64,829 last year, or nearly $12,000 below the average salaries in four peer groups reviewed by the consultant.

Full professors at UH-Manoa trail even more, about $17,000 behind the average salaries of their peers, according to the study, and "the most senior faculty in the institution are falling further and further behind," Lee told the state Board of Regents personnel and legal affairs committee in a presentation at UH-Hilo.

UH President Evan Dobelle called the pay issue "paramount. You can't move this institution without paying your people."

"If there's not one more dime for another new initiative, so long as the faculty are paid well then I will raise the money to do other things," Dobelle said in an interview. "This is one of the most expensive places to live in the country, and our faculty salaries are not competitive."

The report concluded that to reach the average pay of all peers immediately, community college faculty would need a 24 percent raise, while the UH-Manoa faculty would need an 18 percent raise. UH-Hilo faculty would need a 21 percent raise, according to the study.

Dobelle has set a goal of moving average faculty salaries to the 80th percentile for comparable institutions in the coming years. The study concludes that if the state were to boost average pay gradually to the 50th percentile and then to the 80th percentile by 2007, that would cost the state an additional $178 million in faculty pay between now and 2007.

The study making a case for faculty raises comes as the state and the University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly, the faculty union, are beginning negotiations on a new contract for the year beginning July 1. The union went on strike in 2001 in its effort to win raises that year.

The cost of the $22,000 study was split by the UH administration and UHPA.

Ted Hong, chief negotiator for the state, called the study "a clear statement of the obvious" in that it demonstrates Hawai'i faculty are paid less than people in comparable positions on the Mainland, a situation also true of state employees in other bargaining units, he said.

The state is short of money and simply doesn't have enough to hand out generous raises to all of the unions, so Gov. Linda Lingle's administration will allocate what pay increases it can afford "based on their contribution, the role they pay in our society," Hong said.

"Is this the time to do it economically, to make up that difference?" Hong asked of gap between the faculty pay here and on the Mainland. "Is this the bargaining unit that the people of Hawai'i have to sacrifice for to make up that difference? I don't know."

The study found the average pay for community college instructors was $48,170, which was $11,329 behind the average of their peers at comparable institutions. The pay at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo was $49,890, or $4,631 behind their peer group average, according to the study.

At the University of Hawai'i at West O'ahu, the average salary was $51,198, which was actually $553 more than the average at comparable facilities.

Lee said UH-West O'ahu pay stacks up more favorably than the other campuses because that small campus has relatively more senior faculty than most comparable institutions, which tends to boost pay.

The study does not take into account the higher cost of living in Hawai'i, meaning the true pay lag is arguably even greater than the report suggests.

Lee acknowledges that colleges and universities also offer a range of fringe benefits, and the study did not compare fringe benefits from one institution to the next. The fringe benefit issue is potentially important because the argument is sometimes made that public workers in Hawai'i have accepted lower salaries in exchange for a better benefit package.

The study excludes clinical doctors in the medical school and faculty at the law school.