On the Cover

“Salary adjustments for individual employees not represented by a union are awarded on the basis of merit and may vary considerably based upon supervisory reviews of individual performance.” (Syracuse Record , 2-22)

If you’re classified as a non-exempt secretarial/clerical worker like me you’ve completed, or are about to complete, the annual spring purging ritual at SU, the performance review, a time for reflection and projection, admonition or reward — in actuality: over-evaluation and underpayment. The review is insulting enough; the added injury is the university’s blatant propagation of the meritocracy myth.

We can do the math together — this year, let’s see, four per cent slated for faculty/staff benefits, minus one per cent for benefits, leaving three per cent for college distribution — uhhmm, okay, then one half to one per cent for “local” discretionary merit raises, resulting in an expected average raise of approximately two to two and a half per cent. Are you running in place with me yet? Still expecting that merit raise to put you ahead of the pack? If you’re in a college like mine, or like the last one I worked for, or like the first one I worked for, it’s a lie. Merit raises are reserved for faculty almost exclusively, and staff get the same across the board. Your incentive is your job.

So I guess what I’m talking about is gender-specific powerlessness and how the university exploits us. But hey, it’s okay: Chancellor Shaw said about salary inequities, “I feel your pain.”

[Cover artwork by Susan M. Peck]

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