University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents will consider two years of 2 percent raises for UW System employees at its meeting Thursday. The increases are an effort reduce the faculty turnover rate.
Turnover among UW System faculty averaged about 8 percent last fiscal year – when state legislation and changed tenure policy created concern among faculty – compared to just under 6 percent in the previous five years. A report to the board’s Business and Finance Committee showed faculty earn about 12 percent less than their peers in other states.
Stephanie Marquis, UW System spokeswoman, said providing raises to all employees is vital to UW System institutions remaining competitive.
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“As we compete in an international market and across the nation and we have other universities that look at our talent, it’s really important for us to do what we can to help slow that gap,” Marquis said.
She said system employees and other state workers have seen their take-home pay decrease in the recent years.
“They actually had to take eight days off unpaid between 2009 and 2011,” Marquis said. “Then also they’re paying more of their benefit costs, which again, what that ends up leading to is that they end up with really a net loss.”
The system-wide raises would not be funded by tuition dollars, but instead by the state.
The salary increase would have to be approved by the Board of Regents before being proposed to the state legislature’s Employee Relations Committee.
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