OUR OPINION: Peer-group comparisons can mislead on wages
April 24, 2012 at 5:30 pm in Grand Forks Herald
For management, the central question is not how much others are paying. That’s always and everywhere a recipe for “more,” given the fact that there always are Joneses to keep up with.
Instead, the central question is this: What do I have to pay to both keep my good workers from jumping ship and to attract new workers when I need them? Continue Reading
I agree wholeheartedly with what you say about how a market sets wages. Your comments were almost verbatum of what we discussed about wages in the ACS lockout.
That said, there are a few points that are salient to the discussion:
The $100,000 figure is for a full, tenured professor. Most people take ten or more years to get to that level. Very few people other than Nobel Laureates or prominent political figures are hired as full professors
The majority of associate or assistant professors earn $60,000-$80,000 a year. That is what a locked out ACS worker earned with overtime. Nothing special by any stretch of the imagination.
In order to be a university professor you need a minimum of a master’s degree and more often than not a PhD, MD, or JD. Lets put this in prospective:
85% of Americans graduate from High School
60% of Americans have “some college”
40% of Americans have an Associates Degree
30% of Americans have a Bachellor’s Degree
8% of Americans have a Master’s Degree
3% of Americans have a PhD or other terminal degree
What you are saying is you need 3% of the population to staff your university, but you only want to pay them what 85% of the population is capable of earning. In order to attract $ and prestige, you are competing not just for the 3%, but the best of the 3%. The old adage of being penny wise and pound foolish comes into play here.
Finally, lets address the mythical $100,000 a year. A full time RN at Altru or Sanford can earn $100,000 a year by averaging 8-12 hours of overtime per paycheck. Since nursing wages in ND are significantly below that paid in neighboring markets, that is not saying much. Nurses in MNPLS would require considerably less overtime to make the $100,000 a year mark.
Twenty years ago $100,000 was the line between middle middle class and upper middle class. That is no longer the case. Now, in 2012, $100,000 a year is solidly middle middle class. You will live comfortably, your kids will have braces, and you will put money away for their education; but do not delude yourself, you will not be driving a new Lexus and vacationing in the Carribbean.
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