Data indicates that Western s salaries for Computer Science faculty lag behind comparable institutions on the west coast by 29.7 percent for entry-level faculty and by more than 100 percent for senior faculty positions. Similar competitive salary discrepancies exist between public institutions and the private sector that can offer higher salaries and better employee benefits for highly qualified personnel. Western also requests that classified staff salaries be adjusted to catch up and keep pace with salaries for comparable positions external to state government. Classified adjustments include full funding of the 6767 salary proposals as well as a general cost of living salary increase. Another component of the faculty salary, retention and recruitment problem is equipment.
New faculty expect and can command from other employers new equipment as part of their recruitment.
Many institutions of higher education with whom we compete for the best faculty include equipment in their employment offers to faculty who need modern technology to continue their scholarly activities. Western recognizes that significant cost increases are required to maintain existing employee benefits, especially health insurance programs. The University encourages the state to preserve the same level of cost to the employee for these benefits. Salary increases that are reduced by higher benefits costs demoralize employees and further reduce our ability to recruit and retain quality personnel necessary for quality programs and services. Maintenance of employees current cost level for benefit programs.