Virginia Tech’s salaried faculty and staff received a one-time three percent bonus in December, the first increase in compensation since 2007.
The General Assembly passed a motion in early 2010 to allow state employees, which includes all of Tech’s employees, to receive the bonus if the state met certain budget cutting and revenue increasing goals.
“It was an action by the governor to recognize that employees had not received any change in compensation,” said Dwight Shelton, Tech’s vice president of finance. “If the state generated enough money to pay for it, he allowed for that one-time bonus.”
Fall bonuses were typically given to state employees in years past, but the state debt made it harder for the General Assembly to justify the past three years.
Although appreciative, employees are frustrated by the freeze in base pay.
“Certainly it’s nice to get the bonus, and we all appreciated the bonus and are pleased to get it, but all of us, particularly the lower paid employees, would certainly benefit from a higher salary,” said Hal Irvin, Tech’s associate vice president of human resources.
“It’s been a long time since we got an increase and it’s been a really difficult thing for everybody,” he said. “You still have the bills to pay and your living expenses and they’re just not getting the salary increases.”
The General Assembly has proposed another bonus if the state meets more budget goals this year in addition to a salary increase, according to Irvin.
The proposal will give salaried employees a two percent raise beginning in July.
However, there is another proposal for state employees to start paying into the Virginia Retirement System, used by approximately one-third, or 1,000, of Tech’s faculty. Currently the state pays both the “employer” and “employee” shares of the pension payments.
If both measures pass, some faculty and staff may see a net loss in their paychecks, according to Mike Ellerbrock, faculty senate president.
“The Faculty Senate’s attitude is that philosophically the state is reneging on its commitment to state employees and faculty,” he said.
“We commit our lives and careers here and they’re robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Ellerbrock said. “They’re giving us a bonus at the same time (they might) force us to pay more into our retirement accounts.”
A version of this article appeared in the Jan 21 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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“We commit our lives and careers here and they’re robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Ellerbrock said. “They’re giving us a bonus at the same time (they might) force us to pay more into our retirement accounts.”
- Who the hell is Peter in this analogy? I'm under the impression that Ellerbrock is arguing to hear his own voice.
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Sadly two things happened: state employees all got a 3% raise. At the same time, the state stop contributing to employees' retirement funds, so now the employees have to (as in mandatory) contribute 5% of their salary to this now. So, essentially, every employee just took a 2% pay cut.
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Nothing has happened yet. The effective 2% cut is proposed and is going through the legislative process in Richmond now.
A note to add is that there have been absolutely no raises (not even cost of living raises) since 2007.
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I'm unclear on how mandatory contributions to retirement plans constitute a pay cut. Most faculty are likely making enough that they should be planning for their retirement anyway. While personally I would prefer to make my own choices about retirement preparation, let's not act like money is being taken from them. In GA, the mandatory deferral amount was closer to 10% when I taught at the college level.
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It's a pay cut because at the moment, the state is paying into our retirement funds. The governor is suggesting that the state should stop doing that and we should do it ourselves. So, instead of a 5% contribution on top of our base salary, it will be a 5% contribution out of our base salary, leaving less for us to take home. That is the definition of a pay cut.
Furthermore, it's a gross overstatement to say that "most faculty are likely making enough. . ." Some are, no doubt, but some are not. And let's also remember that there are thousands of employees who are already making a less than average salary and the governor's proposal means that they will now be making even less.
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Virginia has been making the 5% contribution for its employees for quite some time now. The state took on this obligation instead of giving employees a raise. So now, the state comes back and decides it wants out of that commitment. If the state needs to cut employee salaries, then go ahead, but call it what it is... a pay cut.
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Steger making $457,040 a year certainly isn't helping things. Just sayin....
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As a VRS member, I would say that current members need to stop their whining and start paying for their retirement. Currently, the tax payers are paying for our retirement for life. Unlike most industry retirement plans, VRS does not have a limit to how much you withdraw throughout retirement. Faculty get 8.5% of their salary toward their retirement which is far better than any 401k plan.
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