Bargaining pro-rata pay for contingent faculty in the contract

AFT set the following standards for pro-rata pay in our publication, Fairness and Equity: Standards of Good Practice in the Employment of Part-time/Adjunct Faculty:

Part-time/adjunct faculty should be paid a salary proportionate to that paid to full-time tenured faculty of the same qualifications for doing the same work. The manner in which pro-rata pay is calculated is a matter of institutional choice depending on the nature of the college or university. In general, however, these standards are organized around the principle of pairing fully proportionate professional responsibilities with fully proportionate compensation.

Below are examples of unions who have been working toward this standard, along with links to their web sites and collective bargaining agreements (where available).

AFT 2121: Community College of San Francisco

Establishing a compensation schedule that pays contingent faculty equitably with increases for service has been a priority at AFT 2121. According to the local's information sheet for part-time faculty:

part-timers are paid from a salary schedule that mirrors the full-timer schedule. The schedule has columns, which reflect increasing amounts of education, and rows, sometimes called "steps," which reflect years of experience . . . Currently the pro-rata for part-timers at City College is 85%; that is, a part-timer is paid 85% of what a full-timer receives for each in-class hour. The current difference in pay (the 15% less that part-timers are paid) reflects the time spent on additional professional duties that full-timers are expected to perform, such as participation in departmental and college-wide committees and holding office hours, for which credit instructors are currently paid extra.

In addition, part-time faculty at CCSF have paid office hours based on their workload. AFT 2121 has also come to an agreement with the District that the desirable level of pro-rata pay is 100% and are committed to working toward that goal.

See the full AFT 2121 contract here.

AFT Seattle Community Colleges, Local 1789

AFT Seattle has been working steadily on pro-rata pay and part-time faculty now earn approximately 77 percent of what a full-time faculty member would make per course. When part-time faculty teach more than 66 percent of a full time workload, but less than 100 percent, they are paid from the full time salary schedule and considered "pro-rata" faculty. A part-time faulty member may teach a 100 percent load and be paid from the full-time faculty salary schedule, but only for one year. If the District wants to keep that person on a 100 percent load for a consecutive year, the faculty member is considered to be on the tenure-track.

Read the full AFT Seattle CC contract here.

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