Junior faculty at Sacramento State feel they are beingpenalized for having more work experience becausenewly hired faculty is getting fatter paychecks.

A main reason is because assistant professors hiredafter 2003-04 never received a salary step increase.

The Sac State Faculty Senate passed a resolution lastmonth to urge Sac State President Alexander Gonzalezto talk to the Chancellor’s office regarding theassistant faculty pay disparity and to come up withpossible remedies for the problem.

Despite the fact that the disparity in pay is aCSUwide issue, some Sac State instructors feel theproblem is worse on campus.

“Channel Island faculty are paid slightly more thanSac State faculty, while their median housing costsare lower than ours,” said Marlyn Jones, an assistantprofessor in the Criminal Justice Department.

Because a faculty member’s raise is dependent upon hisor her starting salary, faculty cannot make up the paydisparity by waiting for subsequent raises.

“If someone starts out at $10,000 in 2002, and anotherperson starts out at $15,000 today, the gap willusually remain even with salary raises,” Jones said.

In the Social Science and Interdisciplinary StudiesDepartment, newly hired faculty members are offeredsalaries up to $7,000 per year more than faculty whohave been working at Sac State for four years,according to the Sac State Faculty Senate Web site.

Faculty has voiced that this system serves as apunishment for those having more experience anddoesn’t provide any incentive for instructors to gainexperience.

“Much of these new professors are coming straight fromcollege with little to no experience and still beingoffered larger salaries,” Jones said.

This system also doesn’t take into account rank,status, or performance because it is based on a flattenure raise, Jones said.

Professors are offeredtenure after six years at Sac State and with that maycome a raise, Jones said.

In comparison with similar schools, the Senate foundthat Sac State assistant faculty earn 19 percent less,according to the senate Web site.

When faculty istenured, or contracted long-term, they receive a”General Salary Increase” of 3.5 percent, while thenationwide average increase is 11.9 percent, accordingto the Senate resolution.

“Faculty are unable to afford housing,” Jones said.

According to the senate Web site, housing costs havegone up over 100 percent in Sacramento in the pastfive years.

In addition, the differences in pay affect the overallfeeling of assistant faculty toward the university andnew faculty members.

“It creates an environment of resentment and leads toinequity,” Jones said.

Another issue is the workload being forced on to thelow-paid professors. Although raises are the same,workload for some junior faculty is more than others,like those in criminal justice ?” an impacted major ?”where the student to professor ratio is very low,Jones said.

This not only affects faculty that arealready underpaid, it also affects the students’learning environment.

Some professors are opting to teach at differentschools to get the higher salaries, Jones said.

The California Faculty Association has also gatheredtogether to negotiate for junior faculty wages.

“We’ve worked harder than many UC faculty members areexpected to perform, yet paid less,” said CecilCanton, Sac State faculty association chapterpresident.

Now that the Senate has passed a resolution, they willnegotiate with Gonzalez to make this his top priorityfor the academic year, according to the senate Website.

Binde Rai can be reached at [email protected]