The nationwide economy has put many of Idaho’s budget items on the chopping block during the past few years. With many Idahoans out of work, the salaries of top-paid state employees come under direct scrutiny.
Guessing Idaho’s governor is the state’s highest paid employee is 262 times wrong. While it seems logical that the most powerful man in the state would be the highest paid, Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s $115,348 publically funded salary does not even put him among the top 10 at either of the state’s two largest universities.
All of the top 10 highest paid public employees work in higher education, and seven of them are involved in the Boise State athletics program. The highest paid employee at the University of Idaho is President M. Duane Nellis, whose $335,004 salary puts him fourth in the state.
Salaries at the top end are visible reminders of how lucrative higher education can be. UI faculty, including full, associate and assistant professors, earn an average $67,050 salary in 2012, according to a study done by the higher-education newspaper The Chronicle.
For college students and many across the state, this sounds like a lot, but Executive Director of Planning and Budget Keith Ickes said salaries at UI are slipping relative to the national norms.
“A number of those top 10 salaries were set a number of years ago,” Ickes said. “If we were to go out today and have to hire for some of those positions today we might see higher salaries.”
The Chronicle Study found that full professor salaries have risen $26,200 since 2000 — $10,000 behind the average national increase.
“Our salaries are reasonable for the region we are in. I don’t know if we’ve ever been truly competitive on salaries,” Ickes said.
UI is not competing with the likes of Harvard and Yale for employees, or even institutions like the University of Michigan or the University of Washington. The economics simply do not match up, Ickes said. UI cannot compete with huge universities in urban centers.
Instead, Ickes said, UI competes on a salary basis with regional state universities in Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota. The geographic isolation of institutions like UI makes recruiting distinguished faculty difficult.
“We are not necessarily the most promising market,” Ickes said. “(But) there are a lot of benefits to having a young family and growing up in Moscow. We have to compensate for the fact that we are somewhat remote. We have to be able to attract people to come here and stay here.”
A second recent factor limiting the potential employee pool was the four-year freeze on hiring and salary increases that was lifted during this year’s legislative session thanks to a slight recovery in Idaho’s economy. Prior to this year’s decision to mandate a 2 percent raise to all public employees, Ickes said there was simmering discontent.
The legislature, which has slashed education budgets of late, fell short on funding the raise for UI faculty and staff. The eventual deal left UI covering half of the compulsory bill through one part of this year’s 6.1 percent increase in tuition at UI.
In less sparse economic times, said Doug Baker, UI provost and executive vice president, salaries and raises were “market based.”
“Different disciplines have different supply and demand characteristics,” Baker said.
Once on the payroll, raises are generally based on merit or progression from associate to full professor. Achieving tenure, Baker said, also ensures a pay increase.
While salary can dominate thinking, Ickes argued UI’s total compensation package significantly improves Idaho’s competitiveness. The packages including medical and life insurance, workman’s compensation and other amenities.
Ickes said Washington State University’s salaries may be $8,000 to $9,000 higher, “but if you look at total compensation, they were only $1,400 ahead of us.”
Salary also depends on the responsibilities faculty take on in addition to teaching, which can bump up a salary significantly. John McIver, vice president of research and economic development, is no exception to this.
“I have no complaints about my salary,” McIver said.
As the fifth highest paid position at UI, the McIver is responsible for leading three units in decision-making — the Office of Sponsored Programs, Office of Research Assurances and Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development.
“All three directors of each office must report to me,” McIver said. “The Office of Sponsored Programs accepts awards on the University’s behalf, the Office of Research Assurances practices biosafety and appropriate conduct of research on their subjects, while the Office of Technology Transfer deals with copyright of protecting intellectual property.”
McIver has held his position for nearly four years, directly overlapping the freeze, and will receive his first raise this year.
Baker said as the economy slowly recovers, he hopes this year’s pay raise will be more than an anomaly and the upward trend will continue.
But Idaho is “still lagging behind” according to Ickes.
“We are getting very uncompetitive, we are starting to lose key, bright faculty,” Baker said.
UI has recently lost a pair of its brightest scientists, biology professor Erica Bree Rosenblum and wheat breeder Robert Zemetra.
As UI is in danger of losing more of its rising research stars, Ickes said he has relayed the message to Gov. Otter and the legislature.
“If the people of Idaho want their sons and daughters to have a very good education, then you have to pay a competitive price for your faculty members,” Ickes said.
Baker hopes UI can continue to move toward its mission as a land-grant, research institution, its.
“That’s our hope,” Baker said. “We need to convince the governor and legislature.”
Dylan Brown can be reached at [email protected]