November 7, 2007
What about everyone else's salary?
I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when I first read the Kaimin headline that read “UM officials’ salaries below average.” It was obviously written to rationalize the pay raises of our officials.
Well, all I can say is, “Ain’t that rich!!” The proper headline should have read “UM Employees salaries below average” and readers could have discovered the plight of all UM employees – that below average salaries are not an exclusive club of the officials. The article should have addressed how the employee wages have not kept up with the cost of living for several years. It might have gone further by mentioning that UM staff pay is substantially lower than MSU or even Flathead Valley Community College, for similar positions. These other institutions all answer to the same Board of Regents, yet the officials at MSU and Flathead Valley have demonstrated the value they place on their staff by going to bat for them in good faith.
I’ve seen how officials at UM can deny appropriate pay for staff, attempt to downgrade their positions, and set up unreasonable criteria when a supervisor attempts to upgrade a position. I suppose keeping expenses down is a factor in ones job approval rating.
Until the (underpaid) officials of UM demonstrate a willingness to bring us all up to “average,” the unconscionably huge pay raises and benefits for our officials are a slap in the face to staff members as well as to all honest people trying to raise families and earn a living wage in Missoula. And the rationale to draw the best applicants you need to pay top wages can be applied to all positions at UM, not just these officials.
A good dose of shame is overdue for all officials of institutions, government and especially corporate America.
Patty McIntire
division of biological science staff member
This story has been viewed 263 times.
Comments
There are no comments for this story yet.
