SENATE BILL REPORT

SB 5932

This analysis was prepared by non-partisan legislative staff for the use of legislative members in their deliberations. This analysis is not a part of the legislation nor does it constitute a statement of legislative intent.

Brief Summary of Bill

Establishes that, to the extent practicable, faculty salaries in community and technical colleges be negotiated at rates at least equal to the average salary for similar faculty as identified by a national human resources organization.
Requires salaries for nursing faculty be awarded premiums at least 20 percent higher than those of other academic employees.

Background: Academic employees at community and technical colleges have collective bargaining rights with respect to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. Bargaining occurs between the board of trustees for the particular community college district and the appropriate exclusive employee organization.

Bargaining units at community and technical colleges are composed of academic employees, which include any teacher, counselor, librarian, or department head who is employed by the college district on a full-time or part-time basis. Administrators may be part of the bargaining unit if a majority of the administrators and a majority of the bargaining unit elect to include them.

Provisions in collective bargaining agreements relating to salary increases cannot exceed the amount or percentage established by the Legislature in the appropriations act and allocated to the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges. If any provision of a salary increase is subsequently modified by the Legislature in an appropriations act, the parties must enter into collective bargaining to modify the provisions.

Several professional associations including the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources conduct annual for biennial faculty compensation surveys for benchmarking purposes. These surveys include data by discipline, degree attainment, gender, age, years in profession, and rank.

Summary of Bill: When negotiating faculty salaries at community and technical colleges, the parties must consider establishing salaries no less than the average salary identified by a college and university professional association for human resources. Contract provisions relating to salary for nursing faculty must include supplemental or premium pay of at least 20 percent above salaries for other academic employees.

Staff Summary of Public Testimony: PRO: The community and technical college faculty have not had raises in several years. It is time we look at giving them a raise through collective bargaining beyond cost of living. This bill would encourage that as well as a 20 percent premium for nurse educators who are in short supply. This premium would incentivize those doctoral level nurses to teach in the community and technical colleges. Nursing is a high demand profession. The community and technical colleges are struggling to recruit and retain highly qualified nursing faculty. This means that hundreds of slots in our nursing programs remain unfilled due to a lack of faculty to teach them. One of the biggest obstacles to recruiting faculty is salaries. These bills would help that.

CON: We applaud the sponsor for bringing this bill forward and recognizing that salaries for faculty at community and technical colleges have not kept pace with the market. We are 12 percent behind faculty pay in other states. At some colleges the faculty make less than educators in neighboring school districts. Our concern is about the twenty percent premium specifically for nurse educators. We know there is a shortage of faculty in other high demand disciplines as well. We believe that local bargaining units for faculty need to agree on what they consider to be hard to fill positions and determine appropriate salaries. We believe that all faculty deserve significant pay increases and that additional investments are needed but are opposed to the particular solution outlined in this bill.

OTHER: Faculty salaries at community and technical colleges have not kept pace with the market, it is our priority this session to try and address this. The premise of this legislation is outstanding but it does not come with an appropriation to finance those salary increases.