SFCC employees to receive salary increase

With some positive financial news, but also a cautious eye on next year's state funding, the South Florida Community College Board of Trustees approved a one-time, non-recurring salary increase for all full-time and part-time employees in regular positions.

Full-time employees will receive a one-time salary increase of $500 and part-time employees in regular positions will receive a $300 one-time increase.

"Our employees have not had any kind of salary adjustment in over a year and a half," SFCC President Norm Stephens, Jr. said Friday. "Over the last two fiscal years we've had revenue reductions from the state each year.

"So we haven't been able to commit to salary increases in the last 18 months."

Entering the 2009-10 fiscal year, which started July 1, the college set aside money to cover possible budget reductions.

Also, the college didn't know how much it would spend on utilities and health insurance increases.

"When we put the budget together, the price of oil was very high along with gas prices, so utilities were a concern," Stephens said. Also, the employee health insurance costs had increased by double-digit percentages over the last several years.

"We had good news on all three of those fronts," he said.

The health insurance increased only 5.7 percent, the utility bills have been lower than expected and the college hasn't had any revenue reductions from the state, Stephens said.

In deciding how to provide some kind of salary adjustment, "we felt that a one-time, non-recurring increase, just before the holidays, would probably be the way our employees would appreciate it the most," Stephens said.

By making it one-time, non-recurring the college is not committing to anything next year, he noted.

"We don't know the state of the economy next July," when the 2010-11 fiscal year starts, Stephens said. "We have concerns. We've been told by the officials at the state level to be very concerned about the funding next year, so that's why it's a non-recurring salary increase."

It will be reevaluated in May when the 2010-11 budget is developed, he added.

The majority of the other community colleges are doing similar salary adjustments, Stephens said.

The overall cost of the one-time increase is about $140,000, which covers 266 fulltime employees and 41 eligible part-time employees.

On average, it represents about a 1.4 percent increase for employees.

That percentage is very misleading because it's a much bigger increase for newer employees or those in lower-paid positions, Stephens said. It's a much lower percentage increase for those in higher-paid positions.