PSU Unit A jobs are assigned “grades,” which each have their own hiring range. For example, if you’re hired for a job graded 24 at UMass Amherst, your salary offer will be $41,865 at the low end and $62,798 at the high end, while jobs graded 30 have a range between $75,449 and $113,174. Those are big ranges! And to make things more confusing, Amherst and Boston both have totally different grades within salary ranges.
When you’re hired at a set salary within a range, you have no way to increase your pay without changing your role to one at a higher job grade—or leaving UMass. Even if the hiring scale says that the maximum for your position is $62,798, if you’re hired at $50k, you’re stuck there. Your pay will increase a tiny bit based on the governor’s parameters for Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs)—maybe 3% annually, if we’re lucky—but those increases often don’t keep up with inflation.
Without the ability to get raises and with COLAs not keeping up with inflation, PSU members who stay in their roles lose purchasing power and essentially make less money every year. Why would anyone want to stay in their role, no matter how essential it is to the university? Internal promotions and leaving UMass are the only ways for members to increase their economic security. As one manager quipped to a PSU member, you have to “go to grow.”
