University of California, Santa Cruz
PA-9: Employee Compensation

UC Fair Wage/Fair Work Plan
On Wednesday, July 22, 2015, University of California President Janet Napolitano announced a new minimum wage plan for UC employees. Titled the “UC Fair Wage/Fair Work Plan”, the program guarantees that by October 2017 UC employees hired to work at least 20 hours a week be paid at least $15 per hour. The plan also requires that contractors doing business with UC guarantee a $15 minimum hourly wage for their workers, ensuring that any workers being paid through a UC contract are paid fairly. The plan includes several measures to ensure contractors comply with the new minimum wage, as well as all federal, state, and UC workplace law and policies, including a telephone hotline for contract workers to report issues, and annual and periodic audits. With this plan, UC is the first public university in the United States to voluntarily establish a $15/hour minimum wage. Beginning October 1, 2015, the Fair Wage/Fair Work Plan will guarantee a minimum rate of $13/hour, which will increase to $14/hour on October 1, 2016, and to $15/hour on October 1, 2017.

The Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA) is the state law that authorizes and regulates collective bargaining between the University of California and the labor organizations that represent UC employees. The complete text of the law is available on the web at http://www.perb.ca.gov/laws/HEERA.aspx.
The Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) administers HEERA. PERB conducts representation elections and investigates and makes decisions regarding Unfair Labor Practice charges filed by employees, labor organizations and the University.

The law protects employees from reprisals, discrimination, coercion or interference with their exercise of HEERA rights, including the right to form, join and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on all matters of employer-employee relations and for the purpose of meeting and conferring over those matters. Employees also have the right to refuse to join employee organizations or to participate in the activities of these organizations. Employees cannot, however, refuse to pay an agency fee (fair share) in lieu of paying membership dues.

Employees who are managerial or confidential within the meaning of HEERA, and some student employees, are excluded from the law's coverage. Supervisory employees have some rights to union representation under HEERA; however, the law prohibits collective bargaining of supervisors' terms and conditions of employment.

History of Collective Bargaining at UC

Under HEERA, a bargaining unit is a group of titles with a sufficient "community of interest" (e.g. similar working environment, occupational category, level of education) that a union can reasonably represent the employees in the unit - particularly the negotiation of the employees' terms and conditions of employment.

After the enactment of HEERA in 1979, PERB made a number of determinations about appropriate units at the University of California and conducted representation elections. The current contract for each bargaining unit is available on UCnet (link is external). HEERA prohibits the University from negotiating directly with represented employees ("direct dealing") or consulting with any academic, professional or staff advisory group on any matter within the scope of representation.

The Negotiation Process

HEERA requires that in negotiating contracts the parties engage in good faith negotiations to try to resolve their differences and to attempt to achieve a signed contract. In the event the parties cannot reach agreement, HEERA provides intervention through an impasse procedure. This procedure includes mediation and fact-finding. If mediation fails, the mediator can elevate the issues to fact-finding. In the fact-finding process, the parties present their respective positions on the unresolved issues that are designated by law as mandatory subjects of bargaining to a three-member fact-finding panel. The panel issues recommendations for resolving the differences between the parties. At the conclusion of fact-finding, if the parties cannot reach agreement using the fact-finder's recommendations the recommendations become available to the public.

The University of California is recognized world-wide for excellence in education and research, and for the excellence of its medical enterprise. To support and foster this excellence, the University will manage each element of total compensation as follows:
• Align our total compensation with leading academic research institutions (public and private) as well as national, regional and local organizations with whom the University competes for talent;
• Align our jobs to the market based on their assigned responsibilities taking into account job scope, accountabilities and value to the University;
• Build funding of total compensation programs into the annual budget process in order to provide for competitive pay and total compensation package alignment;
• Reinforce a high-performance culture so as to attract, develop, motivate and retain the talent needed; Compensate individuals for their relative levels of contribution to the success of the University
• Provide cash incentive opportunities, where appropriate and aligned with market prevalent practices, with actual payouts tightly linked to results and accountabilities;
• Establish consistent linkage of system-wide programs, systems and processes while accommodating, where appropriate, a level of flexibility in administration to allow campuses to operate and compete with relative autonomy within their respective markets.
For more information, please see: http://www.ucop.edu/hrconf/2011/presentations/job-families-market-analysis.pdf

At UCSC, most payroll titles are assigned either a grade or a step scale. Graded titles have a minimum and a maximum rate and employees can be paid anywhere within the range. Titles with a step scale (ie. step 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, etc.) have a succession of steps, beginning with step 1.0 and ending with a negotiated maximum step (differs between titles).
Generally speaking, positions in the Professional and Support Staff (PSS) program and the Managers and Senior Professionals (MSP) program are assigned a salary grade,
and positions assigned to a Collective Bargaining Unit are on a step scale. Positions that are assigned a grade must be paid a salary within the minimum and maximum of the salary range, and positions that are on a step scale, must be paid on one of the negotiated steps.

Represented employees' pay rates are determined through collective bargaining. Pay rates for each collective bargaining unit are determined through UC systemwide bargaining and negotiations. The minimum rate for each collective bargaining unit differs. As of January 1, 2016, the minimum step rate for incumbents in each bargaining unit ranged between $15.01/hour to $55.15/hour. For policy-covered (non-represented employees), beginning October 1, 2015, UC’s Fair Wage/Fair Work Plan will guarantee a minimum rate of $13/hour, which will increase to $14/hour on October 1, 2016, and to $15/hour on October 1, 2017 for all UC employees hired to work at least 20 hours a week.
Regular, full-time employees in career, academic, partial-year career and contract appointments are eligible for Full Benefits.
• Choice of medical plans
• Choice of dental plans
• Vision
• Legal
• Disability, life & accident insurance
• Tax-savings programs:
o Tax Savings on Insurance Premiums (TIP)PDF
o Health Flexible Spending Account PDF
o Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account PDF
• Family care resources

Beginning October 1, 2015, UC’s Fair Wage/Fair Work Plan will guarantee a minimum rate of $13/hour, which will increase to $14/hour on October 1, 2016, and to $15/hour on October 1, 2017 for all UC employees hired to work at least 20 hours a week (i.e., 50% time).

Regular, part-time employees in career, academic, limited, partial-year career and contract appointments, working at least 20 hours per week (i.e., 50% time) are eligible for Full Benefits.
• Choice of medical plans
• Choice of dental plans
• Vision
• Legal
• Disability, life & accident insurance
• Tax-savings programs:
o Tax Savings on Insurance Premiums (TIP)PDF
o Health Flexible Spending Account PDF
o Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account PDF
• Family care resources

Pay rates for each collective bargaining unit are determined through UC systemwide bargaining and negotiations. The minimum rate for each collective bargaining unit differs. As of January 1, 2016, the minimum step rate for incumbents in each bargaining unit ranged between $15.01/hour to $55.15/hour. For policy-covered (non-represented employees), beginning October 1, 2015, UC’s Fair Wage/Fair Work Plan will guarantee a minimum rate of $13/hour, which will increase to $14/hour on October 1, 2016, and to $15/hour on October 1, 2017 for all UC employees hired to work at least 20 hours a week. Temporary (non-regular) staff in academic, limited, and contract appointments are eligible for Mid-Level Benefits if hired to work 100 percent time for at least three months but for less than one year OR hired at 50 percent time or more for a year or more but not a UC Retirement Plan member.
• Choice of medical plans
• Legal
• Life insurance
• Accidental death & dismemberment
• Tax-savings programs:
o Tax Savings on Insurance Premiums (TIP)PDF
o Health Flexible Spending AccountPDF
o Dependent Care Flexible Spending AccountPDF
• Family care resources
Temporary (non-regular) staff in academic, limited, and contract appointments are eligible for Core Benefits if hired for 43.75 percent time. Employees in per diem, casual/restricted (students), by agreement or seasonal appointments are eligible for Core benefits if appointed to work at least 75 percent time for at least three months.
• Core catastrophic medical plan
• Legal
• Life insurance
• Accidental death & dismemberment
• Tax-savings programs:
o Tax Savings on Insurance Premiums (TIP)PDF
o Health Flexible Spending AccountPDF
o Dependent Care Flexible Spending AccountPDF
• Family care resources

Temporary (non-regular) staff in academic, limited, and contract appointments are eligible for Mid-Level Benefits if hired to work 100 percent time for at least three months but for less than one year OR hired at 50 percent time or more for a year or more but not a UC Retirement Plan member.
• Choice of medical plans
• Legal
• Life insurance
• Accidental death & dismemberment
• Tax-savings programs:
o Tax Savings on Insurance Premiums (TIP)PDF
o Health Flexible Spending AccountPDF
o Dependent Care Flexible Spending AccountPDF
• Family care resources
Temporary (non-regular) staff in academic, limited, and contract appointments are eligible for Core Benefits if hired for 43.75 percent time. Employees in per diem, casual/restricted (students), by agreement or seasonal appointments are eligible for Core benefits if appointed to work at least 75 percent time for at least three months.
• Core catastrophic medical plan
• Legal
• Life insurance
• Accidental death & dismemberment
• Tax-savings programs:
o Tax Savings on Insurance Premiums (TIP)PDF
o Health Flexible Spending AccountPDF
o Dependent Care Flexible Spending AccountPDF
• Family care resources

UCSC is governed by Federal Law but chooses to use the more generous California State Wage Minimum as its minimum wage in order to remain competitive as an employer. All part-time employees not covered under the UC Fair Wage/Fair Work Plan program, are paid a rate at least equivalent to, or more than, the more generous California State minimum wage of $10.00/hour. Federal Minimum Wage (effective July 2009) is $7.25/hour. California State Minimum Wage (effective January 2016) is $10.00/hour
Employees in casual/restricted (students) appointments are eligible for Core benefits if appointed to work at least 75 percent time for at least three months.
• Core catastrophic medical plan
• Legal
• Life insurance
• Accidental death & dismemberment
• Tax-savings programs:
o Tax Savings on Insurance Premiums (TIP)PDF
o Health Flexible Spending AccountPDF
o Dependent Care Flexible Spending AccountPDF
• Family care resources