In 1970, three years after the first meeting that would establish the Librarian Association of the University of California (LAUC), a committee was appointed to gather comparative data regarding librarian salaries. During the 1970s, the librarian series and restructuring of the salary scale dominated the LAUC agenda and assembly meetings. Various ad hoc and special committees were established to review the issues and recommend a course of action.

This chronological history is an attempt to provide an at-a-glance view of decisions and actions described in lengthy LAUC documents. It presents a brief summary of reports and actions resulting from LAUC debates and discussions. The years covered are 1970-1979 because the most intense concentration on the librarian series and salary restructuring took place during the seventies. The next 10 year period, the eighties, LAUC focused its attention on issues such as professional standards and peer review, libraries and automation, the library budget, recognition for the organization from the UC administration, and the early retirement of librarians through the Voluntary Early Retirement Program (VERIP). The nineties has brought the issue of the librarian series and salary restructuring back to the forefront.

In May of 1997, the LAUC Committee on Professional Governance was charged to continue the analysis and review of the UCOP 1995 Librarian Salary Survey; to propose a plan to restructure the steps in the librarian series salary scale and to identify and provide supporting documentation for the proposal. To follow up on the committee’s recommendations, at the May 1998 Spring Assembly, the LAUC Committee on Professional Governance was given a special charge. The committee was asked to "prepare a report that provides recommendations and justifications for restructuring the librarian salary scales." The report would also request that three more steps be added to the librarian rank and include criteria for these steps with the highest step regarded as distinguished.

More detailed information and local chapter discussions surrounding the librarian series and salary restructuring can be obtained from the LAUC Archives or other publications of the organization and its nine chapters.

August 25-- In response to the UC Office of the President expression of a lack of data on salary conditions of employment for librarians at other institutions, the LAUC Committee on Privileges, Salaries, Condition and Security of Employment was established to undertake a survey to uncover the comparative data. The committee’s response was "Survey on Librarians Salaries and Condition of Employment at Twelve Universities as Compared with the University of California", a study of factual data forwarded to President Taylor.

-- At the LAUC Spring Assembly, the group voiced its apprehension over the new salary scales and how the conversion to the new classification would surface.

May 20-- An ad hoc committee on salaries was established with representatives from each campus and LAUC past President as chair.

July 1-- A salary scale that reallocated existing salaries came into place though performance criteria had been expanded. Librarians received a 10% increase, 9% general range adjustment and 1% inequity increase, the first enhancement in three years. Cost of living had increased 17%.

-- The Ad Hoc Committee produced a salary conversion report that was forwarded to the UCOP.

September-- The UFL strongly supported the need for an increase in librarians’ salaries at a meeting between the UFL and the University administration. LAUC had not endorsed the UFL’s position on salaries.

October 31-- The Report of the Special Committee to Study Librarian Salaries, University of California was submitted. The committee was charged to formulate a report on the magnitude of a general increase in librarians’ salaries for the year 1973-74 that was to be submitted to Vice President of Academic Affairs and Personnel, Dr. Angus E. Taylor. The report presented: 1) the development of a useful methodology for determining comparative salaries, 2) an interim structure for salary ranges, merit increases, years at step, and conversion from the present pattern, and 3) the magnitude of existing inequities, an interim salary scale, and the resultant magnitude of a salary increase. It was also noted that salaries of librarians had not changed since 1962.

Committee recommendations:

-- Senate budget provided a 9% increase for academic salaries- 7.5% across the board and 1.5% for inequities. Librarians received the 7.5% across the board and a 2.5% inequity for a total of 10% salary adjustment.

-- Last day of legislative session, the Senate overwhelmingly passed and sent to the Governor a bill to give UC Librarians a 9.3 per cent inequity pay increase. Assembly bill 1412 introduced by John C. Miller of Oakland on behalf of the AFT was overwhelmingly approved by three committees of the Assembly and by the Senate in SB 1315 (Petris) as well as by floor votes of bodies themselves.

October-- Governor Reagan vetoed AB1412; the librarian pay inequity bill stating that inequity should be handled in the regular University budget rather than by a supplemented appropriation. (Originally, the bill called for a 23.6 per cent pay increase to bring librarians up to the pay schedule of other UC non-Senate academic employees. It was lowered to 9.3 per cent in the Senate.)

-- A Special Committee to Study Librarian Salaries, University of California, Report number 2. The report reaffirmed certain facts that remained unchanged from the Special Committee to Study Librarian Salaries, Report No. 1, October 1972, and supplemented Report No.1 with comparative data.

-- LAUC Fall Assembly passed a resolution to endorse the second report of the Special Committee to Study Librarian Salaries.

May 3-- President Hitch and The Regents recommended A special 5.25% salary increase for librarians to the state government.

June 30-- Governor Regan approved funding in the 1974-75 UC budget for a librarian inequity salary increase, in addition to a 5.45% general salary increase for all academic employees.

October 3-- Special Committee to Study Librarian Salaries, University of California, Report No. 3. The committee continued to focus its primary attention upon the assessment of the salary inequity currently experienced by appointees in the Librarian series. The report contained specific observations regarding the size of that inequity and recommendations for its elimination. It stated that the present salary scales for librarians in the University of California continue to be considerably below those of librarians in most comparative CA libraries and those paid other non-Senate academic appointees in the University.

April 19-- Special Committee to Study Librarian Salaries submits proposal to restructure the Librarian series salary scale to Vice President of Academic Affairs and Personnel, Dr. Angus Taylor. The report recommended that the University request a 15.2 per cent inequity salary increase for 1975/76 for appointees in the Librarian series, in addition to any general range adjustment that might be obtained for academic title holders.

-- Vice President Taylor submits the special committee report for a general review by the campus administrations and LAUC.

May 13-- AFT librarian representatives presented testimony to an Assembly Ways and Means subcommittee urging legislative approval of a 7.5% inequity salary increase for UC librarians, in addition to the general academic salary increase expected to be 8.5% for 1975-76.

May 27-- Vice President Taylor was informed that the nine divisions of LAUC favored acceptance of the last report (Report No. 3) of the Special Committee to Study Librarian Salaries. The report was accepted with the understanding that all of the committee’s recommendations are observed and that the university recognizes its continuing obligation to provide additional inequity funding which is already long overdue. The report was approved as a good base from which to seek further improvement.

July-- Vice President Taylor authorized implementation of the restructured salary scale for the librarian series based on the report of the Special Committee to Study Librarian Salaries, submitted April 19, 1975.

-- In response to language in the 1977/78 State Budget Act, the CEPC established a Task Force on librarian salaries.

March 21-- Report of the Special Academic Salary Committee was established and charged to "review the University’s current procedures for range adjustments and adjustments in fringe benefits." The committee considered the means university generates, proposes, and supports annual requests for appropriations in support of academic salaries and fringe benefits.

Committee recommendations:

1. Representations be made to CPEC that beginning no later than the budget year 1978-79, the method to be employed in the determination of a recommended appropriation for salary adjustments necessary to achieve parity with the comparison eight institutions would be based on the projected staffing pattern in the university of California in the budget year to which the CPEC report refers.
2. Representations be made to the CPEC that, beginning no later than the budget year 1978-79, the adjustment for changes in the rate of inflation, currently a feature of the CPEC formula, be eliminated.
3. Representations be made to CPEC that, beginning no later than the1978-79, its annual reports on faculty salaries show that total dollar amount of increase in faculty salaries required to achieve parity, in average salaries, rank by rank, with the comparison institutions; and consistent with the thrust of recommendation there be no deduction for merit increases.
4. No change be made in the current method of measuring parity in (the cost of fringe benefits be proposed to CPEC but that it be recommended to CPEC that the results be shown separately and not combined with the results of the salary comparisons.
5. That the President, in formulating his annual recommendation to The Regents on faculty salaries, give careful attention to relevant information relating to significant developments in the economy generally and in the comparison institutions.

May 8-- The California Postsecondary Education Commission (CEPC) approved the report "Librarians Compensation at the University of CA and the California State Universities and Colleges: The Search for Equity". The committee’s report found that librarians’ salaries in the UC were competitive in relation to comparison institutions, partly because there was a surplus of qualified librarians seeking employment. The report launched a major debate at the LAUC Spring Assembly concerning its inadequate treatment of gender bias in librarians’ salaries. The Assembly requested that the report not be used to evaluate or determine librarians’ salaries.

June 2-- LAUC passed a resolution calling for the further study of the comparative salary position of librarians in the University of California to obtain current information on librarians’ salaries. The resolution came as a direct result of dissatisfaction with the methodology employed in the May 1978 report on librarians’ compensation of the California Postsecondary Education Commission. LAUC urged the withdrawal of the study as a basis for evaluating librarian salaries and benefits or for any determination of salary structure and that these views be communicated to

June-- LAUC Ad Hoc Committee on Salary Inequity appointed.

May 1-- Report from the Ad Hoc Committee on Salary Inequity was submitted. The report stated that there was no validity in comparing salaries with other comparable institutions nationally. It also added that it’s better to compare with jobs in the UC academic series and to staff with currently paralleling salaries (or similar educational requirements) and particularly to groups with lower educational requirements and the same or higher salaries. It also argued that sexual discrimination has kept librarian salaries lower.

October 15-- LAUC Ad Hoc Committee on Librarians’ Salary Inequity report completed. The committee was charged to replicate the comparison with selected University of California academic non-Senate series and to obtain current information on librarians’ salaries in other major political jurisdictions in California.

The committee’s findings reconfirmed the conclusion of the 1974 report (no. # 3) of the Special Committee to Study Librarian Salaries. "…that comparison of librarian salaries with salaries of other University of California academic series demonstrates that inequities exist currently in salaries for all ranks in the Librarian series, and that all levels require substantial increases to achieve parity." Based on comparative worth analysis which confirmed the conclusions of the 1972-74 studies, the report " recommends that LAUC seek the University’s immediate action to correct the salary inequity for the librarian series in order to eliminate the continuing sharp differential between librarians and comparable but, for the most part, predominantly male academic series in UC."

LAUC Archives, 1970-1981. Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California.

Horn, Judy K. and Jefferson P. Selth, editors. LAUC The First 25 Years: A History of the Librarians Association of the University of California 1967-1992. LAUC in Association with Dumont Press, 1993, 358 p.