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NEA Policy Statements
8. Professional Compensation and the Finances
of Higher Education
Compensation levels in institutions of higher
education must be sufficient to attract outstanding individuals into teaching,
scholarship, research, and service. Institutions of higher education compete
with the government and private sector for outstanding college graduates
and holders of advanced degrees from a narrow national and international
applicant pool. Several states have made serious efforts to remedy this
crisis in compensation, but many other states have been unwilling or unable
to begin restoring faculty compensation to competitive levels.
There are also growing salary differentials among
faculty members in various academic disciplines, especially at the four-year
college and university levels. Although NEA recognizes that institutions
feel compelled to compete actively to fill vacant positions with the best
possible candidates, it calls on these institutions to recognize that:
- Clearly stated salary levels and structures,
developed at some institutions through collective bargaining contracts,
will reduce tensions on campus, promote harmony, and improve morale
among members of the academic community. These contracts afford stability,
consistency, and a controlling influence on salary distribution, along
with a mechanism for making adjustments when necessary and appropriate.
- Faculty salaries in certain disciplines are
being driven up by market factors and by shifts in student registrations.
As in the past, these factors and student interests may change, leaving
anomalies in the patterns of campus salary distribution. Therefore,
adjustments in salary levels and structure because of these factors
should be made with restraint and with concern for equity and the probability
of external changes in the future.
The salaries of women and minority faculty members
continue to lag behind those of white males when all other factors are
substantially similar. Professional groups that are predominantly composed
of women are underpaid when compared to similarly situated groups of males.
States and institutions should rectify these situations.
Public funds expended for education, research,
and services must be considered an investment in the economic future of
this nation. State legislatures and the federal government should continue
to invest in education-at all levels-to maintain the economic and social
growth of this nation. To a large extent education has produced and sustained
this growth, a fact becoming more apparent each day as science and technology
grow more essential to the ability of this nation to compete in the world
market. Furthermore, the current impetus for quality in all levels of
education will require an increase in per student public expenditure on
higher education.
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