Raises for big earners cut into raises for others

Editor,

Thank you very much for the article on July 7 about the disparity in pay raises at UNM.

I must make one clarification, however, because I made an error in speaking with a reporter on the phone. The cutoff for receiving the 5 percent raise was an annual salary below $30,000, the same amount used by President David Schmidly as a cutoff point for the raises for other staff. I misspoke in saying $35,000. Instead, $35,000 is the cutoff point that the union counter proposed in negotiations, and it is a breaking point that UNM uses for deciding which percentage of insurance cost is borne by staff at UNM.

The actual point of this article that was missed was that 747 people, as of March 2006, made annual salaries above $100,000, and most of the raise money goes to these people. Giving the same percentage raise - or even more - to those in that salary bracket prevents those who needed the 5 percent raise from getting it. UNM claimed it didn't have the money to give 5 percent raises to all staff, but the reason is because they give huge dollar increases to those who make more than $100,000, and not all of those who receive these increases are faculty. Staff deserves better treatment if UNM is going to retain experienced, competent staff and faculty.

Terry Mulcahy

UNM staff