Not Livable, Not Fair: District’s Current Pay Offer Fails Faculty 

By Jessica Silver-Sharp 

As you may have seen in AFT’s latest negotiations report,¹ the District’s most recent compensation offer for full-time and part-time non-instructional faculty is 8.25% over three years (2.75% each year) and 10.0% (3.5, 3.25, and 3.25 each year) for part-time instructional faculty. As anyone living in the Bay area knows, that’s an offer that just won’t cut it. 

By now, AFT has engaged in 19 bargaining sessions with the District without seeing any substantial movement from their initial offers on salaries and benefits. Despite the District’s rising revenues and more than ten-year violation of California’s 50% law (See: “Why do faculty need raises? A brief financial analysis of SMCCCD revenues and faculty compensation,” The Advocate, March 2025),² the District continues to deny faculty even a “moderate” standard of living for our area. (The San Mateo County median income for a single-income household is $130,600.) 

For the period from 2020 to 2025, inflation in the US soared by almost 25% while full-time faculty pay increased by about 16% in that timeframe.  Thus, SMCCCD faculty have found themselves 8.3% poorer, on average, in terms of salaries as a result.  

	Aug. 2020	Aug. 2025	% Change (2020-2025)
Salary*	$119,124	$128,112	16.3%
Inflation Adjusted	$110,124	$137,265	24.6%
		-$9,153	-8.3%

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Also during 2020-2025, San Mateo County, which already leads the state as the most expensive market to buy a home,4 saw housing prices increase by almost 4% per year while apartment rents increased more than 6% per year.⁵ Additionally, CalPERS’ overall weighted health insurance premium rates increased by 10.79% in January 2025 and will rise 8.21% in 2026.⁶ Faculty are feeling the pinch of rising costs for two-party and family health insurance plans. 

As AFT Treasurer and CSM Economics professor Steven Lehigh has explained, “[The District’s latest] offer doesn’t even keep up with inflation, much less offer anything of a true raise. We don’t want our salary increases to simply be indexed to inflation, but at a bare minimum, they need to keep up with it.”  Lehigh, who also sits on the District Budget Committee, presented AFT’s economic arguments⁷ succinctly to their team of negotiators back in May. Still, the District did not budge.

CSM English instructor Teeka James, with 29 years of service to the District, explained her position to the Trustees on September 10th: 

“I’m still upset about the low raises and now I’m even more upset . . . because the health insurance increase is ridiculous. Frankly, I feel abandoned by you guys; you talk about how we’re family, how you support and believe in us as human beings. . . . I say that’s not true. My payment premium for my health insurance right now is $694. Next Spring it’s going to be $1,274. That’s a 69% percent increase.” ⁸ [NB: James contacted The Advocate to correct her calculation. The actual percentage increase is 83.6%.]

James’s department colleague, instructor Keira Travis, reinforced that message: 

“I just want to know that my financial situation will at least hold kind of steady. The District’s current offer guarantees that my life will get financially worse and that I’ll be distracted by financial problems. . . . I see the District spend money on anti-union lawyers who are rude and obstructive. These are bad expenditures! Invest in your people so that we can all be fully united!”⁹

Making improvements to our contract through strong negotiations, member participation and continuing to call out the Board of Trustees on their failures to meet state legal obligations can make a difference. 

But as we’ve now seen, more direct action will be needed to win a fair contract. Our power as a union is collective. Union members must unite to reject District offers that insult and devalue us. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Endnotes

1. AFT1493 bargaining reports: https://aft1493.org/contract-negotiations-updates/

2. “Why do faculty need raises?,” https://aft1493.org/why-do-faculty-need-raises/, The Advocate, Issue 47, Num. 2, March 2025

3. CPI inflation calculator, https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

4. “San Mateo California rental market trends,” https://www.point2homes.com/US/Average-Rent/CA/San-Mateo-County/San-Mateo.html

5. “San Mateo, Santa Clara counties lead state as most-expensive markets as California’s housing affordability reaches near all-time low,” Mountain View Voice, Feb. 2025, https://www.mv-voice.com/real-estate/2025/02/13/san-mateo-santa-clara-counties-lead-state-as-most-expensive-markets-as-californias-housing-affordability-reaches-near-all-time-low/

6. “CalPERS announces health care premiums for 2026,”  https://calretirees.org/Member-Resources/News/calpers-announces-health-plan-premiums-for-2026

7. Sources for inflation: raw data , inflation calculator

8. Prof. Teeka James to Board of Trustees on Sept. 10, 2025.https://smccd.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=a1ed1f6c-4fb0-4244-a6fc-b35501112e20&start=1484.611183

9. Prof. Keira Travis to Board of Trustees on Sept. 10, 2025. video recording,  https://smccd.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=a1ed1f6c-4fb0-4244-a6fc-b35501112e20&start=1609.515381