SALARY EROSION:  Click here to see full analysis (text and charts) from presentation made by Steve London, PSC First Vice President, at the October 30th mass meeting.

Summary:  A key issues for PSC members in the present contract talks is salary erosion and the effect of the University’s reliance for half its teaching on underpaid part-timers. Faculty salaries have lost 27-51% of their real value since 1971 and are no longer competitive with comparable institutions, regionally or nationally. Professors at Rutgers (New Brunswick) now earn 24% more than their counterparts at CUNY and professors at the University of Connecticut earn 23% more than their counterparts at CUNY (based on average salaries from Fall 2006). At stake is the quality of public higher education, one of the driving engines of New York’s economy. Forty-six percent of college students in New York City are CUNY students, and four out of five CUNY graduates stay in New York, pay taxes here and fill the jobs of the future. Without competitive salaries, CUNY colleges often find that they cannot recruit their first-choice candidates for faculty positions and that many current faculty are seeking to leave.  Academic departments are under strain. The quality of education students receive is jeopardized because the mentorship and continuity that students depend on are the inevitable casualties of this crisis.  

The three charts below, presented by Steve London at the October 30th mass meeting, dramatize the story.