Post
RE: Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) is requiring us to pay staff and, more importantly, postdocs overtime if they work more than 40 hrs in a week and earn less than a salary threshold that increases from 1.75x of the statewide minimum wage in 2022 ($52,743.60) and increases to 2.5x the statewide minimum wage in 2028 (estimated at $93,288.00). In addition, there are new rules coming for hourly workers that will require us paying them benefits after 1040 hrs worked (6 months at full time, one year at 50%). These changes are based on new legislation in Washington State. For full professors, this may have an impact on our productivity, which will likely also cause a reduction in productivity towards the land-grant mission. Despite this reduction in productivity, this will likely have less impact on our academic careers than it will on Assistant and Associate Professors. Junior faculty earn tenure and/or promotion based on Academic Productivity. This assessment is usually based on comparisons with other Tier 1 research universities (and often land-grant universities). Since these comparisons will ultimately be with universities in other states, many of which (for example Idaho) do not have the same FLSA rules, they put our junior faculty at a comparative disadvantage.
Though we realize that we as an institution may not be able to change WA State Labor laws (though we should try), this leaves WSU in a position of comparing junior faculty to other institutions that do not have the same costs to productivity. With this in mind, we would like to know what WSU intends to do with regard to these potential ‘apples to oranges’ comparisons of junior faculty productivity. These comparisons are not only institution to institution but are also likely to be historically based intra-institutional comparisons. Can we maintain our current productivity expectations, developed during a period of relatively low-cost labor, in a period of much higher labor costs, particularly for postdocs and hourly workers?
Michael Neff
Crop & Soil Sciences
Response
Faculty Senate Executive Officers have received this concern and will respond with more information as soon as they are able. ~11.18.22
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