Faculty and staff at the College of William and Mary will be going home with more money in their pockets.
It is no secret that the College has had to function with less state funding in recent years, but College officials are finding money within the budget to address what they consider a dire need. Effective with the pay period which started last week, entry-level employees will be receive a pay raise of $1, from $9 to $10 an hour. Faculty will receive a 1.5 percent increase but not across the board.
“These increases are a long overdue effort to begin meeting a crucial need,” College of William and Mary President Taylor Reveley said in a Wednesday email to faculty and staff. “Given the high caliber and hard work of William & Mary’s faculty and staff, the absence of pay increases for three years, now going on four, has become extraordinarily painful.”
In addition, employees who make the minimum of the pay range established by market comparison for their positions will be brought up to the minimum of his or her salary range, on the condition that their performance is satisfactory.
Reveley estimated that less than 20 people would not receive the increases due to unsatisfactory performance.
“There are very few people at William & Mary who do unsatisfactory work. Most people do very good work,” Reveley said.
Reveley denied student and worker movements for higher worker wages or the threat of professors finding higher paid positions affected the decision.
“This is a response to the reality that there has been a salary freeze for three years for William & Mary’s faculty and staff, and we felt a compelling need to do something, even if it’s very modest, to help our people,” Reveley said in an email.
Yet Reveley mentioned in the faculty-wide email some “imbalances” caused by three year’s worth of faculty freezes. Among salary equality among new and old faculty, and lack of compensation despite faculty taking on new responsibilities, faculty poaching was cited.
“A small number of people have received raises in response to job offers from competing institutions, but other people performing at very high levels have not,” Reveley said.
Reveley stressed that these modest increases will not achieve the state goal of increasing the College’s salary rank in regard to other institutions to the 60th percentile. Currently, the College sits at the seventh percentile.
“These increases will not come remotely close to doing that!” Reveley said. “Not even in the ballpark.”
The funding source for these pay increases will come from the retention of non-state funds which supported last year’s bonuses.
Despite provisions within the College six-year plan for salary increases of 4 to 5 percent, the College jumpstarted pay raises in order to retain its collegiate status.
“If we want to keep succeeding as an institution, we can’t continue doing this,” Reveley said an email. “So these increases are a long overdue effort to begin meeting a crucial need.”
The six-year plan is pending approval by the State Higher Council for Education and concerns the 2012 to 2013 budget.
These modest increases in salary will not apply to every faculty member either.
“The balance of the funds will be used to address issues of salary compression, equity, extraordinary merit, and competiveness as determined by deans and vice presidents,” Reveley said in an email.
Reveley informed faculty that deans and supervisors will meet with faculty members in November to discuss how the pay increases will apply to them.