Financial & Compensation Claim Fact Checks

Perhaps the biggest driving factor we hear from UAOU organizers is how unionization will help drive raises and compensation. Unfortunately, in real dollar terms, unions have made many faculty worse off. Take a look at the evidence and decide if you can afford the cost of what a union brings. Unlike the union's rhetoric, we have the sources and data so you can decide what's right for your family.

UAOU Claim: "If OU unionizes, you and your colleagues can expect to do better in terms of pay!"

Fact Check: False, union contracts often take years to negotiate and have left many members at peer schools at best even to what they were getting and in many cases worse off.

The Facts: The only thing you should expect if OU unionizes is a drawn out negotiation for a first contract that will likely leave you worse off financially. There will be no raises or changes in compensation while a contract is being negotiated. Nationally, collective bargaining units have a 25% failure rate to achieve a contract after three years of negotiations. Success within year one is only 52% (Source: Economic Policy Institute). Do you want to stake your family's future on the flip of a coin?

But let's go further and assume a contract similar to peer schools. How good are these contracts? You be the judge:

An image displaying minimal pay raises for unions at: Cleveland State University, University of Akron, University of Cincinnati, Bowling Green State University, and Kent State University. The raises ranging from a flat $1,000 increase to 1.5%- 2.5% total.

Based on these peers, faculty must pay .75% to 1% of their earnings to receive a 1.5% to 2.5% raise. If it takes longer than a year to negotiate a contract you and your families will most certainly be worse off financially. For example: at Miami University the AAUP-AFT backed union is going into year two of negotiations with no end in sight and no contract. No contract means no raises. If the union passes, we may sustain multiple years living in limbo with no raises.

UAOU Claim: "While compensation at unionized universities is higher than at non-unionized universities, salaries at a given institution do not go up in lock-step. Contracts often specify salary floors for faculty, but not salary ceilings. If you look at collective bargaining contracts across the country, you’ll see that merit raises are usually part of the contract. Contracts also establish processes for addressing compensation inequities and for offering competitive salaries to hire and retain strong faculty."

Fact Check: Misleading, some members of the union are better off, many are worse off when factoring in union dues. Check the chart below and ask yourself if the union would really leave you better off.

The Facts: UAOU refuses to acknowledge that unionization drives wages to regress to the mean and compress salaries overall. In fact, "there is supporting empirical evidence that unions flatten the
distribution of wages across skill groups" (Source: Wage Distribution Impacts of Higher Education Faculty, Wassell Jr. et. al.). Colleagues across higher paid disciplines (for instance: engineering, health, business) should yet again expect to be financially worse off both when factoring union dues and salary compression.

1 According to the Ohio University website, for Fiscal Year 2025, “Divisions have been instructed to allocate a raise pool equaling two percent of salary for all eligible employees that will then be distributed based on merit….Merit increases are to be based on the quality of an individual's performance as evidenced by their performance evaluation. The Provost (or Planning Unit Head for non-academic units) must approve merit increases outside the approved minimum of 0.50% (for meeting expectations) and a maximum of 5.00%. … Units must use the most recent performance evaluation rating when determining the percentage merit increase, unless the increase will be 2% across the board (link).”

2 According to p. 84 of Bowling Green State University’s Collective Bargaining Agreement 2024-27, there will be a 2% raise or $2,000 (whichever is greater) for fiscal year 2025, plus 1% for merit (meets or exceeds expectations). In future years, there will be a 1.5% raise or $1,500 (whichever is greater) and there will continue to be an extra 1% for merit-based pay (link). Union dues are 0.75% of salary (link).

3 According to p. 1 of Cleveland State’s Collective Bargaining Agreement One Year Extension 2024-25, there will be a 1% salary increase for 2024-25 (link). Union dues are 0.8% of salary after 4 years of membership (0.5% for first 4 years) (link).

4 According to p. 68 of the University of Akron’s Collective Bargaining Agreement 2024-26, faculty will receive a lump sum of $2,000 only if enrollment is above 18,700 students (link); however, enrollment in fall 2024 was 14,813 students, so the faculty will receive zero raises (link). Union dues are 0.75% of salary (link).

5 According to p. 55 of the University of Cincinnati’s Collective Bargaining Agreement 2022-25, there will be salary increases of 1.25% plus a lump sum of $1,675 in 2024-25 (link). Union dues are 1% of salary (link).

6 According to p. 80 of Wright State University’s Collective Bargaining Agreement 2023-26, there will be a salary increase of 3% for 2024-25 (link). Union dues are 0.7% of salary (link).

7 According to p. 80 of Youngstown State University’s Collective Bargaining Agreement 2023-26, there will be a salary increase of 2% plus a $1,000 lump sum (link). The collective bargaining unit is the Ohio Education Association. The 2024-25 dues for the Ohio Education Association were $525 OEA dues + $69 UniServ required dues or a total of $594 from page 0-10 of the OEA Local Treasurer’s Handbook; the additional NEA required dues of $213 were not included because these provide benefits to members (link).

Other Notes:

Kent State University was excluded from the analysis because the last available collective bargaining agreement ended in 2022, but union dues are 0.8% of salary (link); the Kent State University president projected budget cuts of $17 million for the 2024-25 fiscal year (link). Central State University and Shawnee State University were excluded from the analysis because these universities have fewer than 5,000 students and are thus not directly comparable to Ohio University’s size. The University of Toledo was excluded from the analysis because the last available collective bargaining agreement ended in 2024 and the union dues data are not available. Under Ohio law, you are not required to join the union and pay dues, but if you do not join, you cannot vote on the union’s collective bargaining agreement.