Dear Colleagues,

Here’s what you should know about the latest CSU employee compensation study management bought: it’s a sham. The study presents itself as objectively true, yet it relies on selective facts and the appearance of fairness.

Since June 2025, CSU management has paid $2.5 million to The Segal Group, the private consulting firm that conveniently distributed this compensation study just after CFA reached impasse in bargaining.

All you need to ask is this: Who is this compensation study ultimately designed to reassure? The answer: those who profit handsomely when public funds and student tuition get redistributed into the hands of private corporations, all in the name of being “fiscally responsible.” The study is not about us and not for us. Its purpose is to cut us down and silence us for demanding to be fairly compensated for our labor.

California Cost of Living Not Measured in Study

Management, by their own admission, chose not to consider the affordability and the cost of living in California in this study. Instead, they only measured the cost of labor (i.e., how much someone is paid for their work) for similar jobs across the entire country. This means that management compared the salaries of faculty in states such as Louisiana or Ohio to those in California and asserted that we are paid comparably, despite those states being much cheaper to live in overall.

But, management did consider the cost of living when it came to housing allowances for CSU presidents, asserting that these allowances should be significantly higher given the cost of living at their respective campus locations (see Slide 5).

Management Disregards the Need to Feed Your Family

In their own FAQ, management openly admits that faculty are struggling with basic needs and then proceeds to trivialize it. They claim that how much we make each month matters less simply because some of us receive benefits.

In their report, they glance over a base salary comparison, then quickly move to dismiss it before drawing a conclusion based on a total compensation analysis. They downplay the reality that our monthly paychecks go towards paying for rent and buying groceries to feed our families. So, even if we were to receive benefits (which not all faculty do), it does not ensure that our wages will allow us to support ourselves and our families. Apparently, this isn’t management’s concern.

Segal Claims the Highest-Paid CSU Executives Make Too Little

Segal wildly reported that faculty receive fair and competitive compensation while campus presidents do not. Upon viewing this report, a very sympathetic chancellor, along with the CSU trustees, quickly moved to offer many campus presidents substantial pay increases. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo President Jeffrey Armstrong was given a 20% increase of $101,867 to his base pay, bumping his annual salary up to $611,203, a number that does not account for his car allowance, provided housing, or eligibility to receive a further 15%, or $91,680, in performance pay.

A Disingenuous Omission of Our Higher-Paid Neighboring Colleges

Segal’s study unsurprisingly leaves out the California Community College (CCC) system while comparing us to other four-year public university systems across the nation where faculty may earn similar wages but have a significantly lower cost of living.

Faculty frequently leave the CSU to go work at neighboring community colleges because the pay is better. The fact that the CCC system was omitted is a tell-tale sign that management only makes these skewed market comparisons when it fits their narrative.

The Fight We Have Ahead of Us

Chancellor García, CSU management, and CSU trustees have shown very little regard for the wellbeing of their employees. They’ve jeopardized our safety by handing over our personal information to the federal administration, undermined academic freedom and chilled free speech, and they disregard shared governance every time they make poor decisions without consulting faculty, staff, and students. Now, they feed us scraps at the bargaining table hoping we’ll be satiated.

Their repeated attempts to shift CSU priorities away from instruction are unmistakable, and we will not let it go unchallenged.

We are demanding:

– A minimum salary of $79,500

– An annual Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA; approx. 3.5%) + 2%

– 2.65% Service Salary Increase (SSIs) every year for those eligible

– 2.65% Post-Promotion Increases (PPI) in 2025-26 and 2027-28 for those eligible

– An expansion of the system-wide equity program from $2 million to $10 million

The issue is not whether the CSU has sufficient funds or whether our salaries are comparable to those in other states. The issue is that we are not being fairly compensated for our work and, more importantly, that we are being treated beneath our worth.

To that end, we urge all faculty to stay engaged in bargaining, ask your colleagues to join CFA if they are not already members (or join yourself if you are not a member!), and continue organizing on your campuses as the statutory process moves us closer to the possibility of a strike.

In unity,

CFA Officers

Margarita Berta-Ávila, President

Michelle Ramos Pellicia, Vice President

Loren Cannon, Secretary

Vang Vang, Treasurer

Lisa Kawamura, Associate Vice President, North

Tracey Salisbury, Associate Vice President, South

Meghan O’Donnell, Associate Vice President, Lecturers, North

Elaine Bernal, Associate Vice President, Lecturers, South

Chris Cox, Associate Vice President, Racial and Social Justice, North

Preeti Sharma, Associate Vice President, Racial and Social Justice, North

Join CFA
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