Consider the State Salaries Database in Context

FARMVILLE On Oct. 17, the

Richmond Times-Dispatch

front page included the eye-catching headline "University Staff Tops Earner List." The article addresses the level of state employee salaries and highlights some incredibly well-paid individuals who are employed in our state's college and university system. During this election season, we urge Virginians to consider the context of university salaries, given the success of our institutions, competitiveness of our salaries, and selective transparency that the salary database represents.

As Virginians, we are fortunate to live in a state that has such a strong system of higher education -- and we all benefit from it, regardless of whether we currently have children who attend these schools or not. The University of Virginia is considered one of the top universities in the country and enjoys an esteemed international reputation. The College of William and Mary boasts student SAT scores that rival the Ivy League's. The medical schools at both VCU and UVa are top-notch, and UVa's law school consistently ranks in the top 10 in the nation.

Smaller schools such as Longwood and Mary Washington offer students an opportunity to enjoy a close-knit environment (like that of a private school) at a public school price tag. When considering the wider context of university costs, we need to keep in mind that our extraordinary choices in higher education better equip current and future Virginian workers to be competitive in an increasingly global economy.

As economists and professors at a state university, we are not surprised that university presidents, vice presidents, deans of medicine, provosts, and coaches are at the top of the pay scale. We do not personally know every one of these individuals' qualifications and responsibilities, so we cannot speak to their worthiness in each instance. However, we would encourage Virginians to consider all salaries in context.

Bearing in mind the breadth of their responsibilities and the unique qualifications they bring to the table, we should all acknowledge that such individuals often maintain these positions in academia at a pay rate actually below an equivalent position (controlling for degrees attained and experience) in the private sector. In fact, you will find university faculty at all levels that provide tremendous bang for the buck.

Virginians should also keep in mind the market context in which colleges and universities operate, as we conduct searches for talent in a very competitive global environment. As in any industry, attracting the best talent requires paying competitive salaries. So our flagship institutions must pay market-based salaries if they want to retain high-quality faculty.

But what the salaries database does not communicate is that many of our colleges and universities struggle to recruit, usually because of the pay structure that we offer. In fact, we have firsthand experience with faculty recruitment processes in our own building that were unsuccessful, usually because the salaries we offered were thousands of dollars lower than the salaries offered in other states.

Our beautiful campus and close-knit environment are not enough to offset the fact that our salary packages are well below the national averages (controlling for field, rank, and experience). If our Virginia public universities are going to rank among the elite universities in the world, compensation must be competitive. Simply looking up an individual's salary on the database does not account for these wider contexts.

We appreciate

The Times-Dispatch's

intentions to inform the public about how our tax dollars are being spent, enhancing the transparency of government expenditures. But this transparency is incomplete, and for good reason. For privacy and practical reasons, we do not have similar databases on other citizens' Social Security, welfare, Medicaid, and unemployment compensation, even though they too would represent transparency in how our tax dollars are being spent. Therefore, while we support additional transparency in government more generally, we urge the public to exercise caution when such transparency is selective and only available for some expenditures.

We hope our internationally admired university system, for example, is not in the crosshairs simply because data happens to be easily available. We are optimistic that election season will contain honest debate about expenditures of every variety, with careful discussion of both salaries and the context within which that money is spent.

Melanie Marks is a professor of economics at Longwood University, and may be contacted at marksmb@longwood.edu. Scott Wentland is an assistant professor of economics, also at Longwood, and may be contacted at wentlandsa@longwood.edu.