Pay disparities are pervasive among non-faculty California State University employees, with workers of color and women earning less than white male workers, a new analysis from the California State University Employees Union found.
Black and Hispanic men and women experience the most severe pay gaps, according to the salary data analysis, released Tuesday. The union represents about 16,000 non-faculty workers overall, including custodians, health care workers, administrators and IT specialists.
The average monthly salary of a worker covered by the union is $4,753, according to the study. White workers earn about $302 less than Asian workers, but earn $579 more than Black workers, $901 more than Hispanic workers, and $545 more than multi-racial, Native American and Pacific Islander workers. Men in general make about $436 more than women.
Among union-represented workers, Hispanic women experience the largest pay gap, making $0.92 for every $1 earned by white men. Black, multi-racial, Native American, and Pacific Islander women make about $0.93 for every $1 earned by white men, according to the analysis.
Those gaps are also a reflection of the lack of seniority-based salary steps for CSU workers, union officials said. The university is the only state agency with workers on an open-range system.
Now, workers and union officials are advocating for increased wages and the return of a salary steps system to boost its competitive edge in recruitment as the university struggles to hire and retain non-faculty staff across its campuses.
Some workers are getting poached by companies in the private sector marketing better pay. Potential hires are declining offers that don’t pay enough given the cost of living. It’s not uncommon for those who stay to pick up second or third jobs, said union President Catherine Hutchinson.
“I have to start looking else where if something doesn’t change, because I can no longer afford to live day to day,” said Hutchinson, who works as a biology technician at CSU Channel Islands.
The findings from the union are in line with a systemwide April study reviewing the salaries of CSU’s more than 30,000 non-faculty staff. The $2 million analysis was paid for by the state and conducted by Mercer, an HR consulting and assessment management firm.
That study found that staff salaries offered at the nation’s largest four-year public university system failed to keep pace with both the private sector and other higher education institutions — a situation that CSU officials acknowledge endangers its longterm viability.
“The CSU’s mission is in jeopardy if it is unable to recruit and retain qualified employees to serve its students and to fulfill the significant role that the CSU plays within California’s economy,” executive vice chancellor and chief financial officer Steve Relyea wrote in a letter to the state legislature advocating for funding.
Return to merit-based salary steps
The CSU Board of Trustees eliminated the salary steps system for non-faculty staff in 1996, ending decades of seniority-based salary raises.
Under the current salary system, a worker’s request for a raise based on performance or changes in workload must go through both the human resources department and a manger for approval, Hutchinson said.
It’s a system that can be easily abused, and work against women and people of color who are more likely to experience bias from managers, she said. Salary steps would create a “merit-based system” based on years of of service, eliminating the potential for managerial bias, Hutchinson said.
A budget proposal from top Democrats in the Legislature released last week week outlines $100 million in funding to start improving non-faculty salaries and transition to a step system. It’s a positive start, said union executive director Jim Philliou, but less than the estimated $287 million required to fully implement recommendations from the April study by Mercer.
Inflation getting to CSU workers
Tricia Sahai has worked as a part-time X-ray technologist at CSU Chico’s health center for more than five years. She took a pay cut to take the job, she said, but it was worth it for the state benefits and camaraderie among government workers.
But stagnant wages have begun to fray Sahai’s financial situation. She’s able to pay all her bills, but as a single mother and dialysis patient, her medical care is expensive and grocery costs are increasing with inflation. Sahai has started to look for a second job for the weekend.
“I don’t want to compromise my care, but it has come down to that,” Sahai said. “I’m considering, ‘How can I sneak in a couple hours here or there.’ It would mean missing a doctor’s appointment, and I’m not sure.”
According to the union’s analysis of its represented employees, pay disparities would shrink under a steps system as salaries for women and workers of color increases.
Female workers of color represented by the union would earn about $0.97 for every $1 earned by white men, compared to about $0.93 under the current open-range system, the study found. Male workers of color would earn about $0.99 for every $1 earned by white men, compared to about $0.97 currently.
“Many people want the campuses to expand, but that’s difficult when the staff who run the machinery of campus don’t have reliable jobs, or are looking for other jobs,” Philliou said.
