University to bridge salary gap

Photo by Joto Chelidze

Two years after Bulgaria's accession to the European Union (EU), AUBG still pays expatriate and local faculty differently. Nevertheless, the AUBG Compensation Committee is working on the reduction of the gap between the salaries, Provost Ann Ferren said.

"As Bulgaria has joined the EU and is becoming integrated with the single labor market of the EU, that difference is shrinking, so the difference between the salaries has also been shrinking," Dean of Faculty Steve Sullivan said.

"We don't differentiate between Western Europeans and Americans. It's between Bulgarian [professors] and expatriates; people who are brought into Bulgaria in order to teach for us and people who are already in Bulgaria," added Sullivan.

"This system does not discriminate or differentiate on the basis of, for example, where a faculty member got his or her education; so a Bulgarian faculty member who did probably everything up to his/her PhD, will still get the local salary," said professor Markus Wien. "It is really [a] question of the passport."

In the past, Bulgarian professors were being paid on a different salary system. Guidelines from the May 2007 Board of Trustees meeting establish seven factors that influence the amount of money a professor will receive. "Now everybody is paid according to grade, according to discipline and according to the market from which they are hired," said Provost Ann Ferren. "We have grouped faculty in five disciplines based on data from competitive salaries we are able to access."

The other factors that influence professor salaries are the university's own resources, inflation and the cost of living. The university also uses College University Personnel Database, American salary database and information on open positions in Europe to put together the data about the professors' pay, Ferren said. "They [professors] are all on [...] different salaries."

Professor Jean Crombois said that EU law "clearly prohibits 'any discrimination on the grounds of nationality' (Article 12 of the Treaty of Rome)," and this provision applies to EU nationals. "The situation at AUBG is, however, a bit different as it concerns ‘reverse' discrimination, i.e. nationals being treated less favorably than non-nationals."

"It [EU law] also says you can pay people exceptional salaries for bringing them into a country to do a special job. The salaries we pay our expatriates are exceptional," Sullivan said.

"The law says that I cannot hire someone who is not a Bulgarian and pay them less than I pay a Bulgarian," Ferren said. "The salaries in Bulgaria are lower than they are elsewhere in EU. I think the standard that you have to meet is what is the market where you are hiring someone from."

"I would say the case is difficult because [...] discrimination is against Bulgarian nationals and you need a community element for the nondiscrimination principle in relation to free movement to apply," professor Zhunalova said. She added that the Bulgarian anti-discrimination law "contains a general prohibition on discrimination on the ground of citizenship and there is also a provision which requires employers to give equal pay for the same or equal work."

"In order to get Western professors here, [or just]anybody educated form the West [who] have options to work in the West, they [AUBG] need to pay more money to make it more attractive," professor Jason Levine said. "They're not going to get anybody if they pay Bulgarian salaries."

"The answer that the university also found for itself is that you attract foreign faculty by offering them salaries which they would get in their foreign countries for a comparable job," Wien said. "From that point of view, the Bulgarian faculty is in favorable position because they get more than they would get at other Bulgarian [universities]."

"To pay Bulgarians the same amount they [AUBG] pay Westerns is, I would say, a little bit of a windfall for the Bulgarians. They are already getting paid three or four times what they would get paid at any other university in Bulgaria," Levine said.