pay raises wasRe: [CAUT] job opening

[David Ilvedson]

You know as I get older I think more about CAUT type positions as a career change.   If I cashed in my home here in California and took a position in wherever America, I might just like it.   EXCEPT for the uncertainty of employment.   Is the Univ piano tech position fairly stable?    

David I.



----- Original message ---------------------------------------->
From: Fred Sturm <fssturm@unm.edu>
To: College and University Technicians <caut@ptg.org>
Received: Wed, 03 Nov 2004 20:40:12 -0700
Subject: Re: pay raises  wasRe: [CAUT] job opening

>Hi Wim,
>	In a state university system, there are usually a bunch of hoops in place 
>when you are after a pay raise. At my U, we tend to have a set percentage 
>("cost of living" or the like) that pretty much everyone gets (unless 
>there's a freeze that year), with a bit of money left over to provide 
>flexibility for  "merit" increases. These have to be triggered by superior 
>ratings in the annual performance review. I have received over the maximum 
>merit increase a couple times, due to successful lobbying, which included 
>documentation of salaries at "peer institutions."
>	If your pay grade is limited, and you reach or near the maximum pay scale 
>within it, you're pretty much stuck unless the job is "eliminated and 
>re-classified." My brother-in-law, who is in an entirely different line of 
>work in a different department, went through such a process once. He had to 
>re-apply for the job, and they had to go through a regular hiring process 
>(meaning he risked losing the job), but he ended up with a much more 
>lucrative position.
>	In the area of piano tech, a similar reclassification might easily be 
>possible, depending how the job is currently described. The higher grade 
>jobs tend to have fancier sounding responsibilities. Management of 
>employees is the most automatic, but being in charge of purchase of new 
>instruments, vending of contract rebuilding, or just an accurate 
>description of what pretty much all of us do (in terms of assessing the 
>inventory and making most or all the decisions) can easily lead to a person 
>from human resources saying "that deserves a grade 15 instead of just a 10" 
>or the like. A job description that just covers mechanical/technical work 
>tends to receive a lower grade. (When I first got them to convert my 
>position from contract to employed, human resources looked at the 
>description and set it at a grade that paid from $7.50 - $12.50/hr. Funny 
>thing: nobody applied. After some nudging, they reclassified to a grade 
>that went from something like $13 - $27/hr).
>	Bottom line - you have to learn and work with the system. Keep track of 
>what you do and blow your own horn (we do an annual self-evaluation, which 
>is the basis for the administrator's evaluation). Note and document what 
>extra responsibility you have taken on, what additional training 
>opportunities you have sought out and taken advantage of, what you have 
>done within your professional organization. Pad that resume. Make friends 
>and influence people <g>.
>	I make an hourly wage. At first I thought I'd rather be on salary, but I 
>soon realized that the hourly system is better, at least from my point of 
>view. It means you are actually protected by the FLSA (Federal Labor 
>Standards Act - I think that's right), meaning entitlement to overtime, and 
>various other guidelines. It might not matter, assuming you have a good 
>relationship with your department, but chairs and administrators do change, 
>usually more often than piano technicians, so there's no guarantee a good 
>relationship will last.
>Regards,
>Fred Sturm
>University of New Mexico

>--On Wednesday, November 3, 2004 3:20 PM -0500 Wimblees@aol.com wrote:

>> The UT job starts at $31,000. Similar positions at other universities
>> have advertised similar pay scales. I was fortunate to start a little
>> higher. But other than pay raises at the whim of the Board of Directors
>> of the university, I don't see me getting anything else in the way of a
>> pay raise.
>>
>> This has been brought up before on this list. Are there any of you that
>> have received pay raises for doing a good job, or as a change in your
>> status?
>> Most jobs at a university, from janitors to professors, have a chance for
>> advancement. But once a piano tuner gets hired, there is no place to go.
>> Is this something the CAUT guidelines should address?
>> Wim




>_______________________________________________
>caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives