CUPA-HR's survey of benefits for higher education employees has been conducted since 2003. Prior to 2020-21, data were collected on healthcare benefits in odd years and non-healthcare benefits in even years. This year, we collected data on all benefits: healthcare benefits, including healthcare plans and wellness programs; and non-healthcare…

This is the executive summary for the full report, "Centering Quality, Centering Equity: Lessons Learned in Increasing Early Childhood Educator Credentials." Thriving communities depend on a strong early childhood education (ECE) system--one where both young children and members of the workforce are served and supported. In recent years,…

The purpose of this report is to investigate paid time off, tuition benefits, and retirement benefits offered to higher ed employees. We surveyed 419 higher education institutions on the paid time off, tuition benefits, and retirement benefits they offer their employees. Key findings include the following. Only about one-third of institutions…

What's the main factor coloring employee satisfaction? Many organizations' leaders think the answer is salary, yet in reality, employee benefits packages are one of the biggest incentives an employer can offer. Educational institutions have done well in providing benefits to employees. However, with an unpredictable economic climate and a complex…

Private-college presidents often draw scrutiny for their hefty compensation packages, but most of them have a ready comeback: I could make a lot more money in the corporate world. While this statement is surely sometimes true, it is also true that some of the nation's top-paid presidents continue to receive perks that their corporate counterparts…

Given the overarching ramifications that financial literacy plays in the modern economy, this paper contends that a renewed emphasis on financial literacy is central to individual, family and communal economic security. New responsibilities and opportunities given to consumers, such as retirement planning, have increased the need for more…

Chicago teachers voted last week to suspend a 7-day-old strike, sending some 350,000 students back to the classroom and paving the way for the teaching force to vote on a tentative contract. But for many in the Windy City, the contract has raised another potentially tall hurdle: how the cash-strapped district will manage to pay for it. District…

Results of a new survey of family-friendly benefits by the Center for the Education of Women at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor show that stopping the tenure clock has become the most common family-friendly benefit in higher education, following paid maternity leave. Other family-friendly policies that top the list in academe allow…

When it came to benefits for employees, higher education used to be at the head of the class. Back in the 1950s, academe was one of the first fields to embrace health-insurance coverage for illnesses that do not require hospitalization, and it later led the way toward long-term disability insurance. Universities and colleges approved…

The California Faculty Association (CFA) seeks to secure and maintain sound retirement options that encourage phased faculty retirement. Their experience in negotiating and administering retirement options are discussed. Defined benefit plan and defined contribution plan are described. CFA agreements are appended. (MLW)

Briefly outlines the reasons some school districts are withdrawing from the social security system. Also notes some advantages of the social security system over alternative plans. (IRT)

The social security commissioner argues that the system's varied protection--against loss of earnings due to death, disability, and even inflation--makes it a better deal than most private plans. (Author/IRT)

Keith Hoeller is an adjunct professor. He teaches philosophy for a living at Green River Community College, just outside Seattle. He has also spent much of the last two decades ruminating about the bigger picture for those at his level of the professorial pecking order. Over the years, Hoeller has lobbied relentlessly for adjunct-friendly…

Shows the estimated comparisons between benefits five employees of the Dekalb (Georgia) school system would receive under social security and under the alternative plan the district has created. (IRT)

A bridge benefit plan designed to provide an adequate income at age 65 so that faculty and senior administrators at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, can choose to retire at an early age, while deferring receipt of their TIAA-CREF annuity benefits during the bridge period, is described. (MLW)