The unionization of instructional workers is a central feature of U.S. higher education, with more than a quarter of those teaching college classes covered by collectively bargained contracts. Though dated, the best existing numbers indicate that more than 430,000 faculty members, graduate students, and related personnel are in bargaining units;…

In 2001 the Finnish government decided that the state sector should develop a new salary system that would take more fully into account the actual outcomes and demands of particular posts. Subsequently, in June 2006, an agreement on a new salary system for the Finnish university sector was reached between the negotiating parties, the employers and…

In this essay, the author explains how teaching assistant (TA) unions work to the benefit not only of the graduate students who are their members but also of the writing programs that employ them. While university administrations understand unions to be bothersome at best and forces of evil at their worst, unions are essential to the maintenance…

Calculates the union relative wage effect for a large sample of college faculty in the United States. The data used are from "The 1977 Survey of the American Professoriate" and cover 4,250 faculty members at 158 institutions of higher education. Faculty characteristics are found to be more important in influencing salaries in nonunion schools than…

After providing some background data on the number of blue-collar and white-collar employees covered by collective bargaining agreements at U.S. institutions of higher education, this study used data from a 1997-1998 study on the costs of staffing in higher education. It was conducted by the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers…

A study of the relationship between faculty unionization and salaries in Ontario's universities during 1975-1983 suggests that unionization has not had a significant impact on relative salary structures there. (MSE)

A 20-year study indicated that educational salaries at all levels have continuously declined relative to the average weekly earnings in Australia. Possible explanations are the role of government, the national teachers' union policy toward different payment systems, and the cultural attitude toward intellectual endeavor. (JOW)

The economic position of college faculty members is examined. It is suggested that a declining relative and absolute economic status for faculty has been in evidence for several years and shows no signs of abating. Faculty members are being forced to find ways to supplement their salaries through outside activities and second jobs. It is also…

Previous findings indicate that faculty on the average earn greater compensation increases at unionized institutions than at nonunionized colleges and universities. More recent data suggest that while increases favoring unionized faculty continue in public four-year colleges and independent institutions, they may have stabilized at public…

A national survey has found little change in faculty salary differentials among disciplines. For the second year, however, public institutions' salary growth outpaced private institutions'. Other trends include "compression" of salaries among faculty ranks within a field and higher salaries for faculty with union contracts. (MSE)

Develops a model of faculty salaries, job satisfaction, and union status, using data for 1,729 faculty members at 4-year colleges and universities. Unions significantly and positively affect full and associate professors' salaries and increase the rewards to seniority while reducing the returns to being at a research university. Union members'…

The trend in Australia toward a broader scope of collective bargaining implies that college faculty bargaining may extend to aging and pensions, tenure, leaves of absence, conditions of fixed-term appointments, criteria for promotion and dismissal, staffing redundancy, and other issues. (MSE)

The University of Maine's seven-campus system led a labor-management committee in redefining a job classification and evaluation system for all hourly positions to achieve internal pay equity. The comprehensive change in compensation polity in a unionized environment was possible only by obtaining wide-scale union involvement. (MSE)

The University of Rhode Island established a merit pay system to reward exceptional teaching, research, and service and to retain valuable faculty. A survey investigated faculty attitudes about the new system's fairness, potential results on faculty productivity and morale, and effects on faculty allegiance. (MSE)

The effects of collective bargaining on faculty salaries are examined. Thirty institutions with collective bargaining agreements are matched with similar institutions without such agreements, and faculty salaries are compared prior to and following unionization. Collective bargaining agreements are found to have little effect upon salary…