Salaries and fringe benefits for members of an educational staff

The significance of salaries and fringe benefits for members of an educational staff should not be treated casually. Salaries affect standard of living, regulate what can be done for a family, recognize excellence in quantitative terms, and in many ways affect the morale of the staff.

Controversies continue between those who favour rigid adherence to salary schedules and those who believe merit raises are more effective. The difficulties of just evaluations and the disagreements about what merits the greatest salary increment cause many to prefer basing salaries on seniority and education. It is also the simplest and easiest method of allocating funds available for salary increases.

Those favouring merit raises believe that this procedure has an important motivating influence and encourages initiative, innovation, and progress. They also insist that there are many of the young faculty members who are more deserving of large increments than are those whose only claims are seniority and educational background.

This conflict is often resolved by allocating a specific amount for salary raises, spreading a percentage of this amount among all faculty members as “cost-of-living” increases, and then using the remainder to adjust salaries that appear too low and to reward outstanding staff members for especially meritorious service and achievement.

Regardless of the exact procedures used or policies followed, the following principles should serve as a guide:

● Justice and equity should be the basic goal.

• Salaries should recognize the weight of responsibilities, outstanding professional contributions, competence in the classroom, and overall value to the institution.

• Salaries should be high enough to attract dedicated and competent individuals to the institution.

• Salary practices should protect teachers and coaches from undue political influences and unjust discrimination.

• Coaches should have rank on the same basis as other faculty members. Winning and losing records should not be the basis upon which salary adjustments are made.

• Intangible qualities to consider in giving merit raises are willingness to give of themselves, the staff member’s influence for good, the difficulty of replacement, and the value to the institution.

Provisions for hospitalization, medical insurance, and major medical plans will add significantly to an individual’s feeling of security. Premiums may be paid entirely by the employee, by the employing institution, or may be shared by both.

The latter is probably the most common. The option of accumulating vacation and sick leave can be meaningful to many.

The payment of expenses for travel to conferences, the privilege of leaves with pay for further study, and other forms of encouragement to improve professionally are all important parts of personnel administration.

Some individuals will be helped by one fringe benefit; others will profit from another. All added together can result in a happier and more enthusiastic faculty and can enhance the education of the students.