Sept. 2018 Advocate: 2018-19 COLA increases

PAY RAISES & STEP ADJUSTMENTS

2018-19 COLA increases: 4.02% for full-time faculty & 5.02% for part-time faculty

Just in case you missed it, all faculty are receiving a cost-of-living adjustment increase this academic year– 4.02% for full-time faculty and 5.02% for part-time faculty. The increase was effective starting in August, but began being included in September paychecks. The retroactive increase for August will be included in October paychecks.

The reason for the different amounts for full-time and part-time faculty was explained by President Paul Rueckhaus in an email sent to all faculty on August 31:

In our continued effort to achieve equity for our part-time colleagues (who comprise 70% of all faculty), our compensation model values the labor of our part-time faculty members.  Though the one percent adjusted increase to part timers does not close the gap, it’s another step in the right direction. As we look toward negotiating our July 2019 contract, defining and reaching for parity between part-time and full-time compensation will continue to be a priority.

In that August 31 email, Rueckhaus also highlighted the fact that the District has recalibrated the steps for adjunct pay. In the old model for instructional faculty, the adjunct pay schedule started at Step 2 and ended at Step 12. AFT agreed that it made sense to rename the steps so that Step 1 would, once again, become active. Paul reassured part-time faculty that: “Though it may look as if you didn’t move up a step (or that you even went down a step from 12 to 11!), please be assured that is not the case: the steps have simply been renamed.”

The new 2018-19 salary schedules (with the COLA increases included) are now available on the AFT 1493 website by clicking on “Salary Schedules” under the “Contracts & Salaries” pull-down menu. Then select the appropriate schedule:

Regular Faculty Schedule
Adjunct Faculty Schedule for instructional faculty
Adjunct Faculty Schedule for non-instructional counselors, librarians & nurses
Regular Faculty Overload Schedule
Post-Retirement Faculty Schedule
• All current SMCCCD salary schedules