Equal Pay for Equal Work for California Community College Faculty

California Legislators

Groundbreaking legislation, AB 1269 (Garcia), has been introduced in the California legislature that would ensure parity for part-time faculty so that equal work results in equal pay. Join California educators to urge California lawmakers to support much-deserved parity for the part-time faculty of California Community Colleges (CCC).

Part-Time Faculty comprise 70% of the community college faculty and teach approximately 50% of the classes across the system. As a result, many CCC administrators are exploiting Part-Time Faculty on their campuses as a cost-savings measure, so they are, in many if not all ways, an exploited second class in the academic world.

Some history:

In 1968, California Education Code was revised to create part-time faculty to fill emergency, temporary needs in the community colleges, but contrary to the labels of temporary and adjunct/unnecessary rooted in Ed Code, part-time faculty have become a permanent fixture in the college system, and many of these professionals have been teaching on temporary contracts for decades at the same institutions.

This exploitation harms our part-time faculty, our institutions, but it damages our students far more as they have limited access to part-time faculty who

  • Are working multiple jobs to earn a living;
  • Are not compensated sufficiently or at all for office hours to meet with students (despite the student success research that has repeatedly demonstrated that students who visit professors during office hours are much more likely to succeed);
  • Are not provided adequate space on campus to meet with students and to do their work;
  • Are not included in the shared governance work that informs the college decisions and curriculum, and;  
  • Are not generally compensated for the professional development and training required by the state and national legislatures and accreditation.

Status quo hurts Part-Time Faculty, impedes full-time faculty hiring, and most importantly negatively impacts the students they serve. Sign our petition today and stay tuned for next steps.

To: California Legislators
From: [Your Name]

I urge you to support AB 1269 (Garcia).

AB 1269 would ensure parity for part-time faculty so that equal work results in equal pay.

Part-Time Faculty comprise 70% of the community college faculty and teach approximately 50% of the classes across the system. As a result, many California Community Colleges (CCC) administrators are exploiting Part-Time Faculty on their campuses as a cost-savings measure and, so they are, in many if not all ways, an exploited second class in the academic world.

The status quo hurts Part-Time Faculty, impedes full-time faculty hiring, and most importantly negatively impacts the students they serve.

AB 1269 would require the Chancellor’s Office to conduct a comprehensive study of part-time faculty as specified, to be completed by July 1, 2023. The bill would also require, as part of the study, the Chancellor’s Office to collect and report part-time faculty parity data from each community college district, report the data as specified, and identify specific policy and fiscal recommendations that would enable the CCC to establish a compensation schedule that achieves pay equity for part-time faculty by January 1, 2027.

I strongly urge your support for AB 1269.