The gender wage gap is an ongoing issue and on the first day of Women’s History Month, NMSU took a step forward in addressing wage disparity. Interim Provost Dorothy Campbell announced on Feb. 23, that all NMSU faculty identifying as female will receive a 1% increase in their salaries beginning March 1, 2023.
The increase applies to all full-time faculty including department heads, library faculty, and extension agents. The increase does not apply to term or part-time employees.
According to Pew Research, in 2022, female workers earned an average of 82 cents for every dollar their male coworkers earned.
The announcement stated that NMSU is striving to ensure equity. “While we consider this as a positive step, we realize that salary equity is a progression that requires ongoing attention, and this is a step in that direction,” Campbell wrote.
The NMSU community had mixed reactions about the recent update. Anne Hubbell, a professor working in the Department of Communication Studies expressed her feelings about the salary increase.
“We know that women and people of color are underpaid, and they were supposed to fix that sometime ago … or work on fixing that, and not much was done,” Hubbell said. “So, I’m glad they’re going to do something, but I don’t know if just doing a blanket raise is the right solution … but it’s at least a step in the right direction.”
Ultimately, Hubbell said she feels hopeful about the increase even though it is minor. However, she mentioned her concerns around not only wages, but the unequal workloads of certain faculty members.
Barbara Franco, administrative assistant working in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies, also mentioned unequal workloads and said the increase “is not enough to compensate the females on campus, as most females are already underpaid for all the work they are required to do.”
For Franco, the salary increase did not particularly provoke hopeful feelings about the future.
“NMSU is always revamping the criteria and pay for staff, and it seems like we are always shorted in one way or another,” Franco said.
This is a step toward narrowing the wage gap, but the NMSU community seems to be aware that there is more to be done.
For questions regarding the salary increase, contact NMSU’s human resources department.
