4/27/2010 5:51:12 PM
Guidelines
Welcome to our new virtual community! Here you can share your thoughts, issues, questions, information, and professional resources - just about anything that relates to your role as a teacher at MC. Often we will solicit your comments on a specific issue of concern, such as pay parity, below. At other times we will post any and all issues pertaining to your work as a part-time faculty member. All posts must be signed; if you want to share your opinion please be bold enough to sign your name. We will not allow obscene, racist, demeaning, or other objectionable language. Criticism of the system is welcome, but personal attacks on individuals or groups are not. Comments that do not follow these guidelines will not be posted. Finally, please limit your comments to no more than 400 words.
Pay Parity for Part-Time Teachers
By Victoria Baldassano
Like other educational institutions in Montgomery County, Montgomery College currently faces serious budget constraints and is implementing furlough days for some full-time faculty and staff. So why introduce the issue of pay parity for part-time faculty now? Because for decades, long before the current economic downturn, universities and community colleges around the country have relied on part-time professors with low salaries and no benefits to help balance their budgets. From the beginning MC has been part of this national trend, which has increased over time.
The statistics are telling. Part-time faculty now represents 48 percent of all teaching faculty at degree-granting institutions, up from 34 percent in 1987 and 22 percent in 1970. In the last 10 years, the numbers of part-time faculty members have increased at almost three times the rate of full-time members. And at two-year public institutions, over 68 percent of all faculty members (instruction and research) are part-time. Economists predict that gradually the U.S. national and local financial outlook will improve. So now is the time to plan for our future, a time when part-time educators will finally be given equal pay for equal work.
At present, contingent faculty occupy the lowest rung in a higher education "caste system that violates our societal sense of fairness, justice, and decency," according to Pablo Eisenberg, senior fellow at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. Budget tightening is nothing new for part-time faculty, he noted in a recent blog for the Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pablo-eisenberg/the-untouchables-of-ameri_b_629815.html. "Large numbers of adjuncts... barely make $20,000 annually, not enough to provide for a family or children."
But part-time teachers around the country have begun to demand better wages and working conditions, bringing the issue of pay parity to the fore. Soon Montgomery College will join that ongoing debate. As part of the collective bargaining agreement between the college and SEIU Local 500, this fall a labor-management committee will explore pay-parity for part-timers.
What does pay parity mean, you may ask, and how does it compare with the notion of pay equity? As defined by Webster’s New World Dictionary, pay parity means “the state or condition of being the same in power, value, rank, [and] equality.” In other words, equal pay for equal work. Pay equity, on the other hand, means pay that is fair and equitable. Unfortunately, college administrators could decide that fair and equitable compensation for part-timers means earning a fraction of what full-timers earn.
In fact, part-time professors at MC earn two to three times less than our full-time colleagues. According to the April 16 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, the average pay for full-time faculty at MC ranges from $55,800 for an instructor to $87,600 for a professor. (The top salary level for full time faculty is currently $95,850). This translates into per ESH rates of $1,860 for an instructor to $2,920 for a professor. Of course this does not include benefits such as health insurance, retirement, vacation, sick leave, and paid tuition. By comparison, we earn $870.83 per ESH for a lecturer, $911.81 for Adjunct l (after teaching a minimum of six (6) semesters and 18 professional development credits), and $947.66 for Adjunct ll (after teaching a minimum of twelve (12) semesters and 36 professional development credits). We have practically no benefits.
What justifies such a disparity? Do we provide two to three times less quality than the full-time faculty? No. Do we work under a different set of standards or expectations? Absolutely not. The administration bases its calculations on the market value of other part-time professors in the state of Maryland. Using that approach alone, we earn more than other part-time teachers in the state. However, most of us live and work in the most expensive county in the state. Doesn’t it make more sense to compare our salaries with those of the full-time faculty members who work at the same institution?
But what about other aspects of a full-time teacher’s job, such as committee assignments, selection of textbooks, and curriculum development? Well, in the summer, full-timers do not have these additional responsibilities. They get paid 75 percent of what they earn during the regular academic year, which seems to be the value the college places on teaching only. The rates for the summer range from $1,395 per ESH for an instructor to $2,190 per ESH for a professor. So parity for part-time professors might correspond to the rates paid to full-timers during the summer. Pay parity may be a long term objective, but this is a place to start the discussion. What do you think?