In an intriguing development for an American campus, a Washington university and its faculty union agree to base professors’ raises based on free market principles.

Colleen Flaherty of Inside Higher Ed offers this report:

Few professors would turn down a raise, but even standard contract pay bumps of 3 or 4 percent can leave long-serving faculty feeling less valued than their newer colleagues. That’s because junior faculty often are recruited at similar or even higher salaries fresh out of graduate school, especially those in high-demand fields such as business and medicine. The issue, known as salary compression, compounds over time, and it’s not great for morale.

But at least one university has stepped outside the box in its approach to equity in professor pay, aiming to bring all faculty salaries up to current market rates for their ranks and discipline, with some getting big percentage raises, and others less. And those involved in contract negotiations at Eastern Washington University say they’d be surprised if other universities didn’t take note.

“All the other schools would be crazy not to do what we did,” said Tony Flinn, professor of English and president of the United Faculty of Eastern, the faculty union affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association. “Across-the-board pay increases by mathematical definition reward those who already have more and it doesn’t help those at lower income levels.” One-time lump sum salary adjustments, as other universities have made, don’t solve the problem long-term, either, he said.

Starting this month, Eastern Washington will divvy up $6.5 million in state funds earmarked for faculty pay among its 436 faculty members, with some getting up to an $18,000 increase annually for each year of the three-year union contract. Most faculty will get at least a 2 percent pay raise annually, and just a handful who already are paid well above the market rate won’t get any increase at all.

Market rate is determined by discipline and rank at peer institutions, based on data collected by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.

The plan is the product of long-term planning among the Faculty Organization (the faculty senate equivalent) , the faculty union, and the administration. Samuel Ligon, professor of creative writing and Faculty Organization president, said no faculty member will get unexpectedly rich off of the contract, as it only seeks to bring faculty pay up to the market rate — something most faculty have been below for years. (Median faculty pay is 10 to 20 percent below the national average for rank and discipline at peer institutions. Full professors are most likely to be paid below market rate.)