Salary Grievance Process
CEAS Salary Grievance Process
- A faculty member who wishes to file a salary equity grievance shall notify the supervising administrator of the primary unit (Department Chair or Program Director) in writing of their grievance and the basis for a claim of inequity. A valid grievance must satisfy the following criteria:
Grievances must be based on base salary, not annual raises or “other faculty” appointments.
The grievance must be based on a comparison between the salary of the grievant and the salaries of all other faculty members of comparable career merit and experience level in the same unit whose salaries are determined within the unit.
A grievant should compare their salary to the unit as a whole. A higher salary paid to one faculty member may not form the basis of a grievance, if the grievant is equitably paid in comparison to most other faculty members in the unit with comparable career merit and experience level. Nothing in this paragraph, however, should be interpreted as barring a grievance based on evidence of racial or gender bias within the unit.
A difference in salaries between two faculty members in the same unit may not, in and of itself, form the basis for a grievance, even if the two faculty members have been working in the unit for the same number of years.
The grievance may not be based on a comparison with faculty members in other units, unless other units are needed to provide a sufficient pool for comparison purposes and these other units are in fields similar to that of the faculty member as approved by the Dean.
The Department Chair (or Program Director) will develop a response to the grievance by following the primary unit’s salary equity appeal procedure. The response must be in writing and include an explanation of the decision on whether the grievance is justified, in addition to a recommendation to the Dean on a salary adjustment, if any.
Should the faculty member believe that the response from the primary unit does not adequately address the perceived inequity, a memo summarizing the prior steps and the rationale for continued disagreement should be submitted to the Dean. The Dean and the Associate Dean for Faculty Advancement will work together to develop a response. The response must be in writing and include an explanation of the decision on whether the grievance is considered justified and a recommendation for resolution.
The salary equity grievance process is applicable only to career-merit salary grievances, and grievances may not be made solely on an annual raise or merit evaluation.
Per the Academic Affairs Policy on Salary Equity, the primary unit shall maintain a salary equity electronic file that includes a copy of the campus policy; a copy of the primary unit’s procedures for determining salaries (factors determining career merit should be described in writing); a copy of the primary unit’s and College’s salary grievance procedure; the most recent scatterplot for salaries in the primary unit; the CV for each faculty member; and information on the career merit (i.e., average of five most recent annual merit ratings and years since PhD degree). Data in the file pertaining to 5 faculty in the same department or primary unit are to be made available for inspection to any faculty member in the College upon request.
Campus Policy links: