by Conrad Scott-Curtis
CCFT and the District have completed a study comparing contract salaries and medical benefits among Cabrillo and seven regional districts, each chosen from Region 4 of the community-college system: in addition to Cabrillo, we looked at Chabot-Las Positas, Foothill-DeAnza, Gavilan, Hartnell, Monterey Peninsula, San Jose-Evergreen, and West Valley-Mission.
While salary comparisons are readily available (for example, see the statewide salary comparison study conducted annually by Santa Rosa faculty union), both sides wanted to understand how medical benefits affected the picture of total compensation (salary + benefits) among schools in the region. To arrive at a measure of medical benefits offered, we averaged the value of medical benefits paid by each school for single coverage, employee + 1, and a family. For example, Cabrillo pays for coverage at the following levels:
Single employee: $ 8,368
Employee + 1: 16,451
Family: 23,199
The average of the medical benefit levels offered by Cabrillo is therefore $16,006. (We relied on this average medical benefit offered as a rough measure, given the amount of labor that would be involved in tracking down the average benefit actually paid per employee, if that information is even available.)
Among the schools we looked at, the average of the average medical benefit offered is $15,647.
Average of Medical Benefits Offered, by School
Difference from Average
Cabrillo $16,006 + 347
Chabot-Las Pos 15,780 + 133
Foothill-De Anza 15,208 – 439
Gavilan 15,476 – 171
Hartnell 15,480 – 167
MPC 15,000 -647
SJ-Evergreen 17,907 + 2,260
WV-Mission 14,320 – 1,327
Most schools fall within $450 of the regional average. The outliers are San Jose-Evergreen, which offers an average benefit of $2,260 above the average in the region, and West Valley-Mission, which offers an average benefit that falls $1,327 below the average. Monterey Peninsula is also something of an outlier, offering an average benefit that is $647 below the regional average.
We compared salaries + medical benefits at four different steps in the Highest Non-Doctorate (HND) column (Column 6 on Cabrillo’s salary schedule): HND Step 1, HND Maximum Initial Salary (Step 9 at Cabrillo), HND Step 14 (a kind of mid-career measure), and HND Highest Step (Step 26 at Cabrillo). Taking into account differences in levels of medical benefits paid by different districts, the relative rankings of schools by salary + medical benefits is not much different from comparing salaries directly. Below, we compare rankings that include salaries and medical benefits:
HND, Step 14 (Cabrillo Column 6) + Medical Benefits
| District | Rank in Region | Distance from Avg. | Distance from Top | Rank in State out of 72 (salary only) |
| Cabrillo | 6 | – 5.1% | – 12.3% | 58 |
| Chab.-Las Pos. | 4 | + 1.8% | – 6.0% | 24 |
| FH-De Anza | 2 | + 7.8% | – 0.2% | 5 |
| Gavilan | 5 | + 1.3% | – 6.4% | 23 |
| Hartnell | 3 | + 2.0% | – 5.8% | 30 |
| MPC | 7 | – 6.8% | – 13.8% | 53 |
| SJ-Evergreen | 1 | + 8.2% | — | 12 |
| WV-Mission | 8 | – 9.3% | – 16.2% | 64 |
Cabrillo fares badly at this mid-career measure of Step 14, and is below average in all steps measured except for maximum initial salary, where Cabrillo ranks second in the region:
HND, Maximum Initial Salary (Cabrillo Column 6, Step 9) + Med. Ben.
| District | Rank in Region | Distance from Average | Distance from Top | Rank in State out of 72 (salary only) |
| Cabrillo | 2 | + 2.6% | – 8.3% | 35 |
| Chab.-Las Pos. | 4 | – 1.1% | – 11.5% | 49 |
| FH-De Anza | 1 | +11.8% | — | 8 |
| Gavilan | 5 | – 1.5% | – 11.9% | 50 |
| Hartnell | 7 | – 3.8% | – 13.9% | 55 |
| MPC | 8 | – 7.6% | – 17.4% | 62 |
| SJ-Evergreen | 3 | + 2.2% | – 8.6% | 44 |
| WV-Mission | 6 | – 2.6% | – 12.9% | 48 |
Here are the rankings from the first step of the highest non-doctorate columns:
HND, Step 1 (Cabrillo Column 6) + Medical Benefits
| District | Rank in Region | Distance from Avg. | Distance from Top | Rank in Stateout of 72 (salary only) |
| Cabrillo | 4 | – 2.2% | – 12.6% | 52 |
| Chab.-Las Pos. | 6 | – 2.6% | – 13.0% | 53 |
| FH-De Anza | 2 | + 3.8% | – 6.3% | 28 |
| Gavilan | 3 | + 2.7% | – 8.2% | 29 |
| Hartnell | 5 | – 2.4% | – 12.9% | 50 |
| MPC | 7 | – 4.0% | – 14.3% | 54 |
| SJ-Evergreen | 1 | +12.0% | — | 8 |
| WV-Mission | 8 | – 7.2% | – 16.9% | 58 |
Finally, here are the rankings from the maximum salary achievable without a Ph.D.:
HND Maximum Salary (Cabrillo Column 6, Step 26
| District | Rank in Region | Distance from Avg. | Dist. from Top | Rank in State out of 72 (salary only) |
| Cabrillo | 7 | – 3.2% | – 8.3% | 53 |
| Chab.-Las Pos. | 5 | – 1.6% | – 7.1% | 42 |
| FH-De Anza | 1 | + 6.2% | — | 10 |
| Gavilan | 3 | + 3.2% | – 2.9% | 25 |
| Hartnell | 6 | – 1.5% | – 7.3% | 41 |
| MPC | 8 | – 9.1% | – 14.5% | 61 |
| SJ-Evergreen | 4 | + 1.7% | – 4.2% | 35 |
| WV-Mission | 2 | + 4.1% | – 2.0% | 15 |
As you can see, these comparisons include quite a wide variance in compensation among the eight schools we measured. Of note is the fact that, at the four steps studied, Cabrillo is below average in the region at four of them: Steps 1, 14, and 26 (or highest step).
We can debate how to proceed as a college from this point—and we have many considerations before us, including a need to plan for contingencies in 2016-17 that could lead to substantial reductions in the college’s base budget—but we should not lose sight of the long-term health of the college, which includes, in the long term, healthy faculty salaries.