First of all, the current merit pay program, including its process described above and the criteria used, is not new. It was agreed to by the CFA as part of their current contract, which does not expire until June 2001. The CSU believes the merit pay program is very important because it rewards outstanding faculty performance. Although the CSU has a strong commitment to the principle of merit pay, the CSU recognizes that the process used last year could be improved. The CSU hopes to work with the faculty to agree on an improved process that addresses faculty concerns and involves a true merit program as envisioned at the time the 1999 agreement was signed.
Teaching is the key criteria on which performance is evaluated.
The CSU merit pay system is a fair and equitable way to reward all outstanding faculty. Thus, the faculty merit increases have, in fact, aided in closing the gender salary gap, which exists largely due to the fact that more women entered the faculty ranks later than their men counterparts. The GSI and SSI can't address the gender gap because they are flat percentage increases. Because most women faculty in general joined the CSU more recently than men, there are fewer women faculty than men overall and fewer in the highest ranks. The CSU spends more money on merit increases for men than women and men's dollar increases are higher simply because there are nearly twice as many men, and three times as many in the highest paying ranks.