California State University unions are backing two bills to cap executive pay and stop wage “loopholes” that delay or limit worker raises as contract battles intensify.
Cal State unions are turning to Sacramento legislation to tighten how the 22-campus university system handles executive compensation and worker pay raises.
Pay caps for presidents. executives under AB 1831
The push comes after Cal State approved base salary increases for 13 of its university presidents in November. followed by additional raises for four vice chancellors.. Union representatives and faculty leaders argue that the system can’t keep raising top-level compensation without squeezing the rest of the institution—especially classrooms. staffing and departmental budgets.
Cal State leaders have defended higher compensation as necessary for recruiting and retaining executives in a competitive market.. Their own materials describe CSU’s pay levels as below peers. warning that inaction could make it harder to attract new leadership.. Still. unions say the timing matters: the pay rises are happening as CSU faces a mounting deficit and ongoing budget scrutiny. while workers and faculty continue to fight over whether contractually promised increases are actually delivered.
Michelle Ramos Pellicia. a professor at Cal State San Marcos and vice president of the California Faculty Association. framed it as a trade-off.. If the system spends more on presidents and top administrators. she said. there is less room for departmental funding and hiring—resources directly tied to how students experience instruction.
A separate bill targets “loopholes” on union raises
Under some union contracts, salaries are expected to rise when the university receives full funding from the state.. CSU officials have argued that workers were not fully funded in the 2025 state budget because lawmakers cut the university system’s funding by $144 million while also providing a one-time. zero-interest loan to cover the gap.. That gap. officials say. is why they proposed one-time bonuses rather than the ongoing raises unions believe should have been triggered.
AB 1818 is designed to reduce the chance of CSU repeating the same sequence in the future—what supporters describe as an approach that sidesteps ongoing contractual pay steps.. Assemblymember Liz Ortega. the bill’s author. says CSU has “exploited a loophole” in the law to avoid paying promised raises while shifting blame to the Legislature.. Ortega’s team says the state honored its side of the funding agreement.
Union leaders describe the human cost of the fight.. Catherine Hutchinson. president of the California State University Employees Union—representing 35. 000 employees including custodial staff. administrative workers and academic support roles—said CSU used a statutory loophole to avoid full salary steps.. She described members who expected a $700 per month increase but instead received only a $40 adjustment. alongside the realities of many employees taking on multiple jobs to make ends meet.
Why the bills are hitting a nerve for students and staff
For students. the stakes can look indirect at first—until they see what labor tension does to staffing. class support and campus services.. When unions say workers are forced to juggle extra jobs because raises aren’t keeping up. that can translate into higher turnover risk and greater strain on the people who remain.. At the same time. unions argue that executive compensation changes without parallel improvements for hiring and departmental capacity can reshape the educational environment.
Misryoum sees a familiar pattern in higher education labor politics: when systems face deficits. disputes over “how money counts” often become proxies for deeper arguments about priorities.. Are budgets being used to protect instructional delivery and workforce stability—or to preserve administrative flexibility and leadership incentives?. The bills sponsored by the faculty association and Teamsters try to answer that question in statutory form.
How CSU leadership may respond
The tuition backdrop adds pressure.. Cal State launched 6% annual tuition increases in 2024, and those increases are set to continue through the 2028–29 academic year.. Supporters of the pay cap argue that tuition rises should not coincide with large executive compensation adjustments. while opponents of the approach—particularly leadership—have framed current pay structures as a recruitment tool.
AB 1818, meanwhile, is still taking shape in language and could evolve during the legislative process.. Officials say it is premature to discuss how it would interact with collective bargaining agreements if enacted.. That leaves a key question for employees: if the bill changes how CSU calculates whether raises must be granted. how quickly and how broadly would it be applied—and would it resolve the recurring disputes that unions say have left workers shortchanged?
For now, what’s clear is that unions are no longer treating labor bargaining as the only battlefield.. In Misryoum’s view. they are using legislation to shift power—forcing CSU leaders to negotiate not just within contracts. but under clearer statutory rules on both executive pay and worker raise eligibility.