NIU faculty finally have gotten what they’ve been waiting for—a raise.

NIU President John La Tourette recently announced that all regular faculty and staff will see a 2 percent salary boost on their next paychecks.

The across-the-board raise will be effective during the pay period beginning Feb. 1 and will appear on faculty’s March 1 paychecks.

La Tourette said the salary increment will increase employees’ base salaries by 2 percent as of June 30, 1992 and become annualized into future salaries.

The salary increases will not be given to faculty hired after the previously mentioned date, he said. Temporary faculty members also will not see the salary boost because they are represented with collective bargaining through the University Professionals of Illinois.

“The 2 percent came strictly out of reallocation,” La Tourette said. “This is a supplement to increases we made in June.”

Faculty also received a 4.9 percent hike on July 1, the beginning of the fiscal year, bringing this year’s base raise to about 7 percent. Funds for the summer boost came from increases in tuition and reallocation.

La Tourette said actual salary hikes on faculty’s base rates this year will come to about 7.3 percent for faculty who make $20,000, 6.8 percent for those making $30,000 and 6.5 percent for $40,000 base pays.

The 2 percent raise came in response to authorization by the Illinois Board of Higher Education on Jan. 21. The authorization allowed NIU to give faculty members salary increases of up to 2 percent.

When La Tourette first proposed the increase he had hoped to make the raise effective on Jan. 1 paychecks. However, he said complications got in the way.

“It’s very complicated to do retroactive pay increases,” he said.

Some complications arose because the NIU Payroll and Compensation Office is relocating and each faculty member’s salary must be calculated individually when increases become retroactive, he said.

In addition, the Regents have recommended individual universities provide a 2.5 percent faculty and staff salary increase for fiscal year 1994.

This proposal must be approved by the legislature, however. “It all depends on what the government does,” La Tourette said.

He said any funds for salary increases during fiscal year 1994 in addition to the Regents’ recommendations must be gathered through reallocation.