The new five-year wage contract marks the first pay increases for UC librarians since 2010

University of California officials reached an agreement for a two-phase salary increase with the American Federation of Teachers on a new five-year wage contract for UC librarians last Friday. The primary wage increase from the old contract will be the first raise the librarians have seen since they last renewed their contracts with UC administrators in 2010.
The contract’s first phase is an average 2.7-percent salary increase as of Nov. 1 for all university librarians. Associate and assistant librarians receiving a positive performance review will be granted a 5.4-percent salary increase, and more senior librarians will receive an 8.1-percent salary increase. Administrators say they hope the universities will have more flexibility in distributing librarians’ salaries, allowing for the recruitment and retaining of better librarians.
According to UCSD Associate University Librarian for Enterprise Services Tammy Dearie, the UC librarians, who ratified the contract in a mere two weeks, overwhelmingly supported the changes.

“The reason for the changes is that the librarians’ salaries, from the union’s and management’s perspective, were under market value,” Dearie said. “What it did was to bring their salaries closer into alignment with librarians’ salaries at other universities that we compare ourselves to, such as the CSU scale and other big, public universities across the United States. Our salaries were slightly lower than theirs, and now they’re comparable.”

Librarians’ salaries, and thus this salary increase, will be funded through the same channels as those of faculty salaries, using student fees overseen by the Department of Academic Affairs.

“Librarians often get raises when faculty get raises but not always,” Dearie said. “They certainly have a different salary scale than faculty, but I think with this new salary scale, they are very well compensated for their work.”

The new contract additionally established a new arrangement for healthcare benefits — providing that librarians receive medical, dental and vision care at the same rate as the general UC employee population — as well as the elimination of a “barrier step.” With this removal, any librarian can more easily move up the salary scale without having to pass through a barrier, making it easier to have a merit increase and thus more difficult to be demoted.