FCBC Annual Report 2017 – 2018

June 25, 2018
· by · in

Dear Colleagues,

The Faculty Compensation and Benefits Committee is pleased to share with you our 2018 Annual Report.  We hope you will take the time to read the summary below and the report itself.  More importantly, we want to hear from you. Please share with us your views and thoughts about our work.  You can either submit a comment below, or you can email us at SEN-FCBC@osu.edu.

 

Ohio State University Faculty Compensation and Benefits Committee

                                   2018 Annual Report Summary

 

This summary documents key points and recommendations from the 2018 annual report of Faculty Compensation and Benefits Committee.  A copy of the full report can be downloaded at:

http://senate.osu.edu/committees/FCBC/FCBC_2018Report_Final.pdf

Key points

  • Average faculty salary growth slowed from 2.8% per year in the period 2007-2012 to 1.4% per year in the period 2012-2017.    OSU’s salary ranking in comparison to AAU, Benchmark, and Big 10 institutions peaked in 2012 and has declined since.  Given reductions in faculty numbers, the total increase in faculty salaries from 2012 to 2017 was 3.9%.
  • The gap in pay due to gender at OSU is 9%. A large share of this is driven by lower rates of promotion of female faculty members.  Differences across departments, likely driven by differences in incentives those departments face, also play an important role.  This persistent gender gap in pay could be contributing to the recent slow rate of growth of faculty salaries.
  • There is evidence of both compression and inversion in the salary structure at Ohio State, which likely is creating additional downward pressure on the growth of faculty salaries.
  • Total University revenues increased 36% from 2012 to 2017, or $2.1 billion. More than half (56%) of this increase was the result of growth in patient services, however, elements related to services provided by faculty (tuition and fees, state support, grants and contracts) increased by 13-16% over the same time period.
  • While the overall rate of growth of health care costs has slowed, faculty have paid more for the services they receive, as documented by rapid growth in the premiums for the tiers that faculty likely inhabit, as well as increases in co-pays and coinsurance.  The committee expressed concerns about the effort to shift individuals from the standard network to the prime network because it will raise their costs and because it could reduce service for individuals already in the prime network.
  • Our analysis of overall revenues at Ohio State suggests that there are opportunities to allocate additional funding for faculty salaries which would address the issues raised above, including our declining rank amongst peer institutions, the gender gap, compression and inversion, and rising health care costs for faculty.

 

Recommendations

 

Recommendation 1:  OSU should commit to moving back toward the median salary amongst the AAU institutions and it should commit to being in the upper third of salaries among the Big 10 institutions.  This will require that revenue streams be dedicated to increase faculty salaries, either through efficiency gains, re-allocation of current revenue streams, or development of new revenue sources.

Recommendation 2:  Given the incredible productivity of OSU’s instructional staff, and the role this has played in generating budget surpluses for the university, OSU should earmark a portion of any annual budget surplus for faculty bonuses.

Recommendation 3:  OSU should commit to eliminating the gender pay gap and other inequities in pay.

Recommendation 4:  Develop a program to address salary compression and inversion.

Recommendation 5:  Slow the increase in prices faculty pay for health care.