UCSC payroll continues to rise

By Kara Guzman, Santa Cruz Sentinel

These UCSC employees were the 10 highest earners by gross salary in 2013.
1. George Blumenthal, chancellor, $318,916
2. Thorne Lay, Earth and planetary sciences professor, $311,852
3. Stanford Woosley, astronomy professor, $303,536
4. Douglas Lin, astronomy professor, $283,183
5. Alison Galloway, executive vice chancellor and provost $268,312
6. Gary Glatzmaier, Earth and planetary sciences professor, $262,042
7. Bruce Margon, astronomy professor and vice chancellor of research, $257,990
8. Phillip Berman, biomolecular science and engineering head, $251,903
9. Piero Madau, astronomy professor, $249,770
10. Harland Epps, astronomy professor, $244,742

Santa Cruz >> UC Santa Cruz increased spending on employees by 4.8 percent in 2013, continuing a four-year trend.

UCSC’s payroll rise from $276.8 million in 2012 to $290 million in 2013 is consistent with UC’s overall increase of 4 percent in the same period.

Payroll costs have now reached totals roughly equal to those in 2008, before the recession, said Guy Lasnier, campus spokesman. Staff layoffs in 2009 and 2010, coupled with a faculty hiring freeze caused payroll totals to drop by 6.4 percent between the 2008 and 2010 fiscal years, he said.
The tide turned in 2011, when UCSC began refilling vacant faculty positions, a process not yet complete. Also in 2011, for the first time in five years, some non-union staff and faculty received a merit-based 3 percent raise, and again in 2013 and 2014, said Lasnier.

SALARY GAP

Despite the rising payroll, UCSC staff and faculty are still underpaid compared to counterparts at other UCs and private universities, said Lasnier.

“It’s been a difficult period of five or six years for staff and faculty, in terms of pay,” he said.
UCSC faculty salaries are $3,200 below those at UC Irvine, UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara, and $5,900 below the average UC salary (excluding UC San Francisco and UC Merced), according to a 2013 UCSC report.

Based on 2012 data, the report follows a 2008 study which showed a wider salary gap, by $2,000 to $3,000. Since 2008, UCSC has enacted a salary boost program, and now the campus has salaries competitive with those at UC Riverside and UC Davis, according to the report.

STATE FUNDS DROP, COSTS RISE

Despite a nearly 10 percent enrollment increase from 2008 to 2013, the amount of state and tuition funding for payroll has declined by 5 percent in the same time period.

State funding made up 75 percent of UCSC’s core funding in 2008, a figure that has dropped to 50 percent by 2013. In turn, tuition and fees have increased each year, from $9,244 for in-state undergraduates in 2008-09 to $15,253 in 2013-14.

UCSC’s operating budget has increased by roughly 20 percent in that time period, mainly due to increasing mandatory costs such as contracted pay raises and benefits, said Lasnier.

SALARY DATABASE

UCSC employed around 11,700 people in 2013, up from 11,100 in 2012 and 11,000 in 2011.
The Sentinel requested salary information on UCSC employees as part of an ongoing effort to document public compensation. A searchable 2013 database is posted on the newspaper’s website.

The highest gross salary — $318,916 — belonged to Chancellor George Blumenthal, who earned $318,915 in 2012 and $318,224 in 2011.

Blumenthal was the lowest-paid UC chancellor in 2013. The highest-paid chancellor, UC Berkeley’s Robert Birgeneau, made $528,285, nearly 40 percent more than Blumenthal.

Unlike other UCs, which have Division I athletics programs and hospitals, UCSC’s top 10 highest earners are mostly professors in astronomy or earth and planetary sciences. UCSC is home to the University of California Observatories, the system-wide headquarters for astronomy research, which includes Mount Hamilton’s Lick Observatory.

Across UC, the top five earners in 2013 were athletic coaches. The highest salary, $2.64 million, belonged to Steve Alford, UCLA’s men’s basketball coach.

[Source]: Santa Cruz Sentinel