NIC board considers 6 percent salary increase

North Idaho College faculty and staff will see pay increases beginning next month if the college board approves a proposal from the administration tonight.

The proposal calls for a 6 percent increase in salaries, but how the money will be paid out depends on factors such as length of employment and how far off salaries are from positions at other colleges.

“It’s just going to be a little bit all over the place,” NIC spokesman Kent Propst said. “Everyone will get things ranging from 0 percent … up to double digits.”

The money will come from a mixture of state and general funds.

The Legislature gave the college enough to cover 40 percent of a state-suggested 5 percent increase; the rest will come from the college’s general fund, which the administration hopes to fatten by increasing NIC’s share of property taxes by 3 percent, the maximum allowed by state law, Propst said.

The board postponed action on the tax hike and the rest of the budget until later in the summer to give the college time to look at the growth in the tax base and how it might affect the levy rate. The vote on the salary increases takes place in time for the new contracts, which begin July 1, Propst said.

The state had called for a 3 percent salary increase last year, but the college didn’t have the funds to match, so employees saw an overall increase of about 1.2 percent.

That plus a decade of no or very small increases and a widening gap between salaries at other colleges leave NIC salaries substantially lower than the competition, said geology instructor Bill Richards, chairman of faculty assembly this past school year.

Faculty salaries were 17 percent below market about a year ago, Propst said. Richards said it’s now closer to 20 percent.

“We have people who can’t come and afford, at our starting salary, to even buy a house,” he said. “People with masters’.”

Faculty have been calling for salary increases for years. Richards said the administration’s 6 percent proposal “is definitely a step in the right direction” but won’t solve the problem. “It needs to be a trend,” he said.

The administration understands the increase won’t fix the shortfall, Propst said. “The problem didn’t occur overnight, and it isn’t going to be resolved overnight,” he said.

Board member Judy Meyer said the board is committed to increasing salaries at the college but must be cautious and remember that the raises will be permanent.

“We need to make sure we’re looking ahead and not setting ourselves up for disappointment later,” she said.