Skilled Employees
Deserve Skilled Wages

Every employer seeks to get the most for the least-pay as little as possible for resources in order to stretch limited funds. From an employer's point of view, the university is doing a good job; it pays middling wages to nearly 2,000 academic professional employees (APs), 20 percent of whom completed their formal education with a bachelor's degree, 50 percent with a master's degree, and 20 percent with a doctorate. Virtually all academic professionals have special-ized skills and expertise, yet the median academic professional salary is $40,000.

This situation can be contrasted with compensation for non-academic employees. Non-academic employees at UIUC are members of 29 different unions, although not all non-academic employees are union members. Many non-academic employees enjoy wage and benefit packages that they and their unions negotiate with the university; others receive the "prevailing industry wage" for the work they perform on campus.

Some university employees who are highly trained and skilled start working for the university for significantly higher wages than most academic professionals earn. The starting income for a police officer is $36,000 and nurses start at $47,300. Some skilled trades people earn yet more as starting employees: newly hired carpenters earn $48,600; electricians, $51,900; and plumbers, $55,600.

Skilled employees-academic and non-academic alike-deserve wages that reflect their contributions and that allow them to enjoy a comfortable life. When the university pays such wages, it reaps benefits in return. Most non-academic workers take pride in their jobs, and they provide the best services the community can offer. Secure in their jobs and fairly rewarded, skilled non-academic workers who find jobs at UIUC don't spend their time looking for another job; they concentrate on making their unique contributions to this top-notch research university.

In the Provost's 1995 report on academic professionals (the Gomes Report), the authors stated that academic professionals are "highly valued employees who play a primary role in the operation of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They are professionals in every sense of the word." We in the Association of Academic Professionals agree, but we are disappointed that our wages do not reflect our contributions to this campus.

We encourage the university to help us gather and present all information that will allow academic professionals to be fairly rewarded, and we encourage academic professionals to do their part as well. Join the Association of Academic Professionals as we work toward our goal of negotiating a contract with the university, establishing wages and terms of employment for APs that are fair and are based on the value of our work.

Please send email to aap@shout.net or call 337-5174 for more information.

UIUC AP Salaries Compared with Union Wages, FY99

How to read this chart: Pick a salary on the horizontal axis; the height of the blue bar shows the number of APs earning approximately that amount. For example, the chart indicates that about 160 APs are paid about $33,000 per year (or, more precisely, 156 APs are paid between $31,500 and $34,500).

Wage ranges for some non-academic staff are indicated by colored bars. For example, nurses, who are represented by AFSCME, earn no less than $47,000 and as much as $56,000 annually. Non-academic incomes shown here are based upon hourly rates (taken from www.pso.uiuc.edu/ratepages/index.htm) and a standard work year of 2080 hours. Some non-academic employees may earn more than the amounts shown here if they work overtime. Non-academic employees are entitled to all university holidays, benefit programs, etc., although non-academic benefits differ slightly from benefits for academic employees.

The histogram of academic professional salaries presents data for 1767 full-time academic professionals who do not hold the title of "dean." The data were graciously provided by the office of the Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs.

Comments or questions about this chart may be sent to aap@shout.net.