Report says A year after striking for higher wages, professors at the University of Hawaii-Manoa still rank in the bottom half of the wage scale for university professors nationwide, according to a report released today.
pay is low at
UH-Manoa
A union official says the school
is serious about salary issuesBy Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.comHowever, professors at all other UH campuses earn close to the median or higher.
The 2002 salary report by the American Association of University Professors is based on a study conducted last fall. The report says the average full professor's salary at UH-Manoa is $80,500 a year. The average full professor's salary at public and private doctoral institutions nationwide is $94,788.
After last year's 13-day strike, Manoa professors received across-the-board raises of $2,325 which kept them in the same 20th to 40th percentile category they were in last year. That means, according to AAUP, that 60 to 80 percent of college professors nationwide make more money than those at UH.
J.N. Musto, executive director of the UH Professional Assembly, said he was not surprised that Manoa's ranking had not changed.
"We didn't go anywhere because everyone was still increasing," he said. "We have a lot of catch-up to do, and we still didn't catch up."
However, the 6 percent raise the faculty will receive in August should help, he said.
Musto said the AAUP study only takes into account faculty that teach classes on a nine-month schedule and does not include comparisons for other faculty, such as researchers.
UHPA and the university administration have been working together to address faculty compensation issues and have sent a proposal to JBL Associates in Washington, D.C., to analyze UH salaries compared with pay at peer institutions, Musto said. This survey should be better, more comprehensive and more credible than the AAUP study.
"I think the real news is that the university is serious about these salary issues," he said.
UH spokesman Paul Costello said increasing faculty salaries was a short- and long-term goal at the university. "I think the president has made it clear that one of the primary tasks of this new administration is to raise the salaries of the faculty here," he said.
UH President Evan Dobelle came to the university on July 2. The faculty union contract expires on July 31, 2003.
Professors at the other UH campuses earn salaries more comparable to their peers, falling into the 40th to 60th percentile at UH-West Oahu and Honolulu, Hawaii, Maui and Windward community colleges.
UH-Hilo and Honolulu, Kapiolani, Kauai and Leeward community college professors ranked in the 60th to 80th percentile.
University of Hawaii
