Most UH executives getting pay raises

Nearly 70 percent of the University of Hawaii’s 252 executives are set to receive merit-based raises under criteria approved earlier this month by the Board of Regents to expend more than $1 million earmarked for management raises.

The raises are designed to reward high-performing employees in executive and managerial positions, under a plan put forward by UH President David Lassner.

The methodology, which was endorsed by the board’s Personnel Affairs Committee, ties individual raises to performance, with those rated satisfactory or higher receiving a $2,000 boost to their base salary; those rated superior getting an additional 1 percent increase; and employees rated outstanding receiving an additional 2 percent raise. Anyone rated less than satisfactory is not eligible for a raise.

The resulting increases would boost the pay of 176 employees, according to a list of personnel actions included on the agenda for today’s Board of Regents meeting on Maui. The positions are excluded from collective bargaining but attached to the bargaining unit representing faculty, and include vice presidents and associate vice presidents, chancellors and vice chancellors, deans and associate deans, and program directors and officers.

The board is scheduled to consider raises for five of the employees — those who report directly to the board or president. The remaining salary adjustments are being disclosed for public comment, as required by law, but do not require board approval.

“The UH Board of Regents and President David Lassner are focused on performance and accountability. The performance-based method for salary adjustments approved by the board reflects that,” university spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said. “Even if approved, our executives will still be below the national average compared to their peers, as is President Lassner. It is important that people understand that these are not 9-to-5 jobs. These positions come with a tremendous amount of responsibility.”

While UH has disclosed the resulting salaries, it did not immediately respond to a request for current management salaries to compare the before-and-after salaries for employees receiving merit raises.

With the increases applied, the deans of UH-Manoa’s medical, law and business schools would earn more than the university president’s $375,000 salary, according to a Honolulu Star-Advertiser analysis. Two executives would earn more than head football coach Nick Rolovich’s $400,008 annual salary.

The salary for Dr. Jerris Hedges, dean of the John A. Burns School of Medicine, would increase to $534,840; Avi Soifer, dean of the William S. Richardson School of Law, would see his pay increased to $416,256; and V. Vance Roley, dean of the Shidler College of Business, would see his salary raised to $393,816. (Soifer in past years has donated his pay raises toward scholarships and a social justice award given by the law school.)

Rounding out the top five among those receiving pay increases are Peter Crouch, dean of Manoa’s College of Engineering, at $333,036, and Guenther Hasinger, director of the Institute for Astronomy, at $314,256.

UH previously estimated the executive raises will cost between $750,000 and $800,000. The Legislature appropriated $1.1 million for salary adjustments for these employees, Meisenzahl said, and any unused money would be returned to the state general fund.

“None of this money is coming out of tuition dollars or any revenue sources from within the University of Hawaii,” he said. “This is not money that was requested by the University of Hawaii. It was specifically set aside for those employees who are excluded from the bargaining unit representing faculty.”

The faculty union, the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, negotiated across-the-board 4 percent annual raises in its 2015-17 contract. A salary database on the union’s website shows the median faculty salary at the flagship Manoa campus as of July was $105,936, while the maximum faculty salary was $336,144.

The list of executive salary adjustments does not include members of the senior management team — the seven system vice presidents and the three chancellors of the four-year campuses — who have chosen to follow Lassner’s lead and forgo any potential salary increases. (The regents recently gave Lassner a positive annual evaluation but at his request did not consider a salary adjustment. He made the same request last year.)

Meisenzahl said it’s possible others on the list will also decline their pay increases.

UH executive annual salaries

The University of Hawaii has disclosed salary adjustments for public comment as required by law for executives who are eligible for merit-based increases. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser sorted the resulting salaries in descending order.