Extra-duty pay across UW System rises to $17.3 million

Extra duty pay for academic staff rose throughout the UW System last year as lawmakers lifted a limit on the academic overtime.

Overage — also called overload — for academic responsibilities beyond a base workload rose 18 percent to $17.3 million across the UW System in the 2013-14 school year, according to salary data released to the Gannett Wisconsin Media Investigative Team. The number of professors receiving at least $20,000 in overages rose from two in 2012-13 to 43 in 2013-14.

Overage had been capped at $12,000 per calendar year prior to July 2013, though the limit was not always enforced. The I-Team reported in March 2013 that 60 employees exceeded $12,000 in overages in 2012, violating state statute.

For 2013-14, UW-Green Bay led the state in overage, averaging $6,260 per professor, $1,700 more than any other school. The school employed three of the five professors with the highest overage amounts in the UW System, and 14 with over $20,000.

UW-Green Bay Human Resources Director Sheryl Van Gruensven said overages spiked as the university leaned on existing faculty to develop and teach new courses in engineering technology, business and environmental technology. The school is hiring three new business professors and three engineering professors and she expects overages to drop with the additional faculty on board.

"I think it was helpful for us to deal with some of these recent changes we've been dealing with, but we don't expect to continue those types of situations in the future," Van Gruensven said.

UW-Superior business and economics professor Jerry Hembd led the state in overage with $40,440 in 2013-14, followed by public and environmental affairs professor John Stoll of UW-Green Bay at $40,004. Those totals would have ranked about 80th among technical college instructors.

The per-employee average remains a fraction of the technical college system. UW System professors averaged $1,400 in overages last school year — or $2,500 when excluding UW-Madison — compared to an average of $10,000 per technical college instructor.

UW professors pay still lags

Across the UW System, professor pay remains well below their peers, according to an annual UW study of out-of-state universities with similar enrollments, degrees, budgets and missions.

UW-Madison paid full professors an average of $109,300 in 2013-14, 25 percent below the median among 11 comparable schools around the nation. The gap was somewhat smaller for associate and assistant professors, around 12 percent below the median.

But the non-doctoral UW schools ranked far worse, cumulatively coming in 30 percent below the median of comparable schools. The 11 schools ranked in the bottom 15 among a group of 43 schools.

UW-Whitewater paid the most among the UW schools at $80,300 per full professor, while UW-Superior was lowest at an average of $68,300. UW-Green Bay was fourth-lowest at an average of $71,400, UW-Stevens Point second-lowest at $69,200 and UW-Oshkosh third-highest at $77,300.

One positive sign for UW professors was an increase in market-related raises in 2013-14, those given in response to offers from other institutions or as a preemptive measure for employees in high demand. The amount across the system had dropped three straight years to $1.9 million in 2012-13, but it jumped to $4.2 million in 2013-14, according to a report to the state Legislature's Joint Finance Committee.

The incentive was used by a limited number of schools, however. UW-Madison gave 267 market-based raises, followed by UW-Green Bay and UW-Whitewater which gave about 150. Only two other schools, Milwaukee and Eau Claire, gave more than five market-based raises.

Athletics personnel top salary ranks

The highest-paid employees in the UW System remain athletic personnel, led by UW-Madison men's basketball coach Bo Ryan at $2.4 million. Football coach Gary Andersen was next at $2.2 million, followed by Athletic Director Barry Alvarez at $1.1 million.

An array of UW-Madison professors are also among the top earners, with 25 grossing more than $300,000 in 2013-14. Eighteen topped that threshold in 2012-13.

— Eric Litke: 920-453-5119 or elitke@gannett.com; on Twitter @ericlitke

About this series

Gannett Wisconsin Media I-Team reporter Eric Litke's story and newest digital database examining more than 36,000 University of Wisconsin System employee salaries is the fourth installment of an occasional watchdog series examining public employee pay in Wisconsin called "What We Pay."

The series allows readers to examine the compensation received by the public employees their taxes support. Each installment will include a story and a searchable online database with information such as employee name, title, current and prior year salaries, overtime/extra pay and health insurance costs.

The Gannett Wisconsin Media Investigative Team obtained the data by filing more than 200 public records requests with various public entities.

"What We Pay" will be rolled out in five parts through the end of the year:

Part 1 – State of Wisconsin

Part 2 – Public schools

Part 3 – Technical colleges

Part 4 – University of Wisconsin System

Part 5 – Cities

Part 6 – Counties

"What We Pay" is an update to an award-winning Gannett Wisconsin Media series that was published in early 2013 which detailed public-sector compensation in 2011 and 2012. This update examines compensation for Wisconsin's public-sector employees during 2013 and 2014.