ARTICLE 11

Salaries

Section A.  Returning Faculty .

SSubd. 1.  Salaries  of tenured, probationary, fixed-term, and non-tenure track faculty members

covered by this Agreement  shall be at the rates set forth below on the salary schedule  as full-time nine-month (168 days) base salaries.  Returning faculty  members shall be initially placed on the same salary step in the same lane occupied at the end of FY 20032005..

Subd. 2.  After being placed on the salary schedule  as prescribed in Subdivision 1, faculty members who were in the bargaining unit  in FY  20032005 and who return in  FY 2004 shall remain on the same step on the salary schedule.FY 2006 shall advance one (1) step on the salary schedule.

Subd. 3.  Effective July 1, 2004 2006 faculty members who were in the bargaining unit  in fiscal year 2004 FY 2006 and who return in fiscal year 2005 FY 2007 shall advance one (1) step on the salary schedule .  Faculty  who cannot receive the returning step provided for in this Subdivision because they are at step 4849 of the salary schedule shall receive a one-time payment of $2,400 (pro rated by  FTE) in lieu of the returning step provided for in this Subdivision.   

Section B.  Promoted  Faculty .

Subd. 1.  Faculty  members promoted  from Instructor to Assistant Professor  shall move to the step on the salary schedule  Professor  lane paying the same salary and then advance two steps in addition to the step movement  provided for in Section A. 

Subd. 2.  Faculty  members promoted  from Assistant Professor  to Associate Professor  and Associate Professor  to Professor shall advance two steps on the Professor lane of the salary schedule  in addition to the step movement  provided in Section A.

Subd. 3.  Promotions  shall be effective July 1.

Section C.  Faculty  Who Provide Early Notice of Retirement.   Faculty members  who elect to retire with at least fifteen (15) years of service in the Minnesota State Universities and who are at least age fifty-five (55) shall have their salary placement  increased by two additional steps on the salary schedule (s) established in this Agreement  in the final two semesters of employment. To receive this benefit  the affected faculty member  must submit a written letter of retirement  by October 1 if retirement will occur no earlier than the end of the following spring semester  but no later than the day prior to the beginning of the subsequent fall semester or by January 15 if retirement will occur at the end of the subsequent fall semester.  Faculty who cannot receive the early notification of retirement  steps provided for in this Section because they are on step 48 49 of the salary schedule shall receive a one-time payment of $4,800 (pro rated by  FTE) in lieu of the step increase provided for in this Section.

Section D.  New Faculty  Assignment and Placement.

Subd. 1. New faculty  hired during the term of this Agreement  shall be assigned to an appropriate rank in accordance with Article 21, Section D.

Subd. 2. New faculty  members beginning employment shall be placed in the appropriate lane at the salary, which is nearest to, but not less than, the salary offered on appointment .

Subd. 3. After implementation of Subdivisions 1-2 of this section and subject to the minimum step placements , new faculty members shall be deemed to have been placed upon the appropriate step , and no further step placement movement or calculations shall be made.

Section E.  Service  at the Top of the Schedule . All faculty who have been at the top of their salary lane for five (5) years shall receive the equivalent of a two-step (approximately a 4.85%) salary adjustment in the next year. Partial years of service at the top of the salary lane and years in which steps are added to the top of the schedule for these lanes shall not be counted toward the calculation of the five- (5) year period.

Section F.  Death  in Service . If a faculty member  who meets the eligibility  requirements  for Employer -paid insurance benefits dies after his/her first duty day of employment, but before his/her insurance coverage  becomes effective, the unpaid balance of his/her annual salary shall be paid to his/her spouse or dependent children.

Section G.  Health and Dental  Premium and Expense Accounts . The Employer  agrees to provide insurance-eligible employees with the option to pay for the employee portion of health and dental premiums on a pre-tax  basis as permitted by law or regulation. The Employer agrees to allow employees to cover co-payments, deductibles and other medical and dental expenses, or expenses for services not covered by health or dental insurance, as permitted by law or regulation, up to a maximum expenditure of five thousand dollars ($5,000) per insurance year. Effective January 1, 20056, the Employer shall make a lump-sum contribution of five six hundred dollars ($500600) to each insurance eligible employee’s medical dental expense account at the beginning of each calendar year. At the beginning of calendar year 2005, the Employer will contribute an additional one hundred dollars ($100) to each insurance eligible employee’s account on a one time basis.  At such time as the Minnesota State Retirement System makes available the use of Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) accounts, at the beginning of each calendar  year.  and if feasible, the parties agree to enter into a Letter of Understanding (LOU) providing that the Employer contributions described in this Section will be made to HRA accounts.  Expenses arising from the implementation and administration  of the HRA Plan shall be paid by the Employer.

Section H.  Dependent Care  Expense Account.  The Employer  agrees to provide insurance-eligible faculty members with the option to participate in a dependent care reimbursement program  for work-related dependent care expenses on a pre-tax  basis as permitted by law or regulation.

Section I.  Salary Equity .  The Salary Review Committee  (SRC ) and the Appeals Committee established in the 1992 Letter of Understanding on Salary Equity shall be continued for the life of this Agreement . The SRC may propose to both the IFO  and MnSCU  procedures and processes, which will reduce the likelihood of inequitable salaries. After the FY 94 review, the SRC will annually review new hires, faculty awarded terminal degrees  since the previous annual review, and any other faculty not previously reviewed for possible equity adjustments , and will recommend appropriate placement based on the then current equity grid .

The SRC  will complete a new analysis of the salaries of all faculty every four years in order to update and/or modify data and relevant criteria and recommend adjustments. Appeals from denials of adjustment shall be considered within the time frame established by the committee .

Section J.  Part-Time  Faculty  Placement on Salary Schedule .  All part-time faculty  other than those faculty members having adjunct or community faculty appointments shall be placed upon the salary schedule  and paid on a pro rata basis for the entire academic year  during which said amount of service is rendered. If any part-time faculty member  who teaches more than ten (10) credits in any one academic year were paid less than pro rata for any semesters, during said academic year by virtue of having received an adjunct or community faculty appointment (s), the university  shall, as soon as practicable after learning that the faculty member  will teach more than ten (10) credits during a single academic year, supplement the faculty member’s salary such that the faculty member receives full pro rata pay for the entire year.

Section K. Career Steps . All faculty members who have completed ten (10) years of service shall receive two (2) additional steps on the salary schedule  at the beginning of their eleventh (11) year of service. Faculty  members who have completed twenty (20) years of service shall receive an additional two (2) steps on the salary schedule at the beginning of their twenty-first (21^st) year of service. Faculty members  who have completed thirty (30) years of service shall receive an additional two (2) steps on the salary schedule at the beginning of their thirty-first (31^st) year of service.  Years of service shall be counted as of the end of the academic year .  Career steps shall be effective July 1.

The seniority roster  shall be used to determine years of service. Administrators who return to the bargaining unit  shall have the years served as an administrator included in the years of service for purposes of this section only.

Unless extended or modified by the parties to this Agreement , this Section shall sunset on June 30, 2007.

Section L. Minimum Salary Placement .  Prior to the step advancements provided for in this Article, the following minimum salary placements shall be applied. Instructors shall not be placed below step ten (10) of the Ins