Salaries for ladder-rank UC faculty would increase next year by an average of 5 percent under the budget proposed in January by Gov. Pete Wilson.
Whereas, three months ago, it was thought that such an increase would officially leave UC faculty salaries 3 percent behind faculty at the "comparison-eight" institutions, it is now thought that the increase will leave UC with a 1.7 percent gap in 1997-98. This figure does not take into account, however, the salary increases the comparison group will get next year; if long-term trends hold, these increases would average 3.5 percent, leaving UC with a 5.2 salary gap in any month past October.
Tied as it is to a public/private comparator group, UC is having a growing problem in competing for faculty with top-notch private institutions. The growth in faculty salaries at quality public institutions has not kept pace in the past 10 years with salary increases at the top privates. Averaging itself between the two kinds of institutions, UC finds itself outpacing the publics, but lagging the privates. The average salary for a full professor this year at UC is $87,668, while at the comparison-eight privates it is $103,814.