Equity Adjustments
Following the 2021 negotiations between AAUP-AFT Local 6075 and the university administration, a pool of funding was set aside to address potential salary inequities for faculty and academic staff for each of three academic years (2021–2024). The pool for the 2022–23 selective salary process is $200,000.
2021 Letter of Agreement re: Equity Adjustments
Recommendations for adjustments are made to the Provost by unit heads (e.g. Chairs, AVPs), in consultation with salary committees. Individuals can request to be considered for an equity adjustment from their department selective salary committee (or college committee in non departmentalized colleges) by submitting a short written statement with their selective salary materials. The statement should provide reasoning for the equity adjustment, and make note of years in job classification, years in rank, and salary as compared to others in the same unit, or to others in comparable positions in other comparable units/departments. Although equity adjustment requests are submitted with the selective salary materials, they should be considered separately, and not on the basis of merit.
When reviewing for equity, the following will be taken into consideration:
Requests should be made to create equity between individuals with like expectations. Written justifications comparing salaries between those with different ranks, tracks, or job expectations will not carry much weight. For faculty, comparisons will be most effective when considering people in the same department. For academic staff, comparisons may be most effective when looking at individuals in a similar rank and with similar job expectations. If an individual is in a unit with three or fewer members, they may be compared to others in other units.
The Equity Adjustment program was not established to align salaries with external professional salary survey percentiles and as such, reference to professional surveys as a reason for the requested increase will not carry weight.
If an individual is going up for promotion, they should make note of that in their request. If a faculty member or academic staff member receives a promotion, they will not receive an equity adjustment in the same year. Since equity adjustments are based on comparisons done at the current rank, it cannot be assumed that the same equity issue will also be in place after promotion.
Equity adjustments shall be made at the discretion of the university, with consideration given to the salary committee requests received during the selective salary review process. The final decisions will be shared with the Deans who will then be responsible for informing faculty and academic staff who received adjustments. The Provost’s office will send out an announcement to all faculty and academic staff after the final decisions are shared with the Deans to let everyone know the process has been completed.