This document outlines the Salary Appeals Process for regular Faculty members who suspect unfair treatment in the determination of their salaries. Grounds for appeal include, but are not limited to, alleged discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, age, religion, sexual orientation, or marital status. Salary differentials do exist for factors deemed non-discriminatory, such as productivity, rank, administrative responsibilities, and market factors. In addition, complaints based on dissatisfaction with an annual raise cannot be appealed through this process.

The Faculty member making an appeal is responsible for presenting supporting information regarding his/her salary and accomplishments in teaching, research, and service, in comparison with an appropriate group, such as persons with the same rank and comparable responsibilities. Sources of information to support an appeal are: (1) current curricula vitae and current salaries of all OSUL Faculty members, available in the Libraries' human resources/personnel office and (2) The Ohio State University Faculty and Staff Salaries; check the Libraries' catalog for locations and availability.

A Faculty member who believes he/she has grounds for appeal may talk informally to individual members of the Faculty Review Board (FRB) or request an informal meeting with FRB. Members of FRB can advise the Faculty member and can act as sounding boards for the appeal, but do not become his/her advocate.

All appeals by OSUL Faculty members are initiated within the University Libraries. If the appeal is resolved during any of the steps within the Libraries, the process is terminated at that point. If a Faculty member is not satisfied with the decision reached in the Libraries, he/she may appeal the decision to the Provost for University Review. The steps in the process are:

(1) A Faculty member presents his/her appeal formally to the appropriate library administrator. Faculty members whose operations report to an Assistant Director appeal to that person; Faculty members who report to the Director appeal directly to him/her.

(2) At the initial or any subsequent stage, the Faculty member or administrator may request that a mediator be present during the discussions. The inclusion of a mediator in the discussions is an option, and is not mandatory. The mediator, whose role is to facilitate the discussions, does not act as an advocate for either the Faculty member or the administrator. Both the Faculty member and the administrator must agree on the mediator, who can be anyone within or outside the Libraries or drawn from a list of volunteer mediators maintained by the Office of Academic Affairs. If the Faculty member and the administrator agree on mediation, but cannot agree on a person to be the mediator, then the Provost's office will assign one from its list of volunteers.

(3) If there is no resolution after the initial discussions, the Faculty member may submit a request for a formal salary analysis to the Director. The Director formally asks FRB to perform the analysis. At this point, FRB members can no longer act informally in an advisory role to the Faculty member. The analysis generally is performed as follows:

(a) FRB reviews the information submitted by the Faculty member and determines the group(s) to which he/she will be compared.

(b) FRB requests the Libraries' human resources/personnel office to develop profiles of data, including information on salary history, promotion and tenure, experience, service and research, on the Faculty member and members of the comparison group(s).

(c) FRB analyzes the data, draws conclusions, and forwards the results to the Director and the Assistant Director, when appropriate. The analysis and conclusions must then be reviewed by the Director, in consultation with others, as appropriate. If the Director concludes that revisions and/or additional analysis are required, he/she will request FRB to do so and to resubmit the revisions/additional analysis to the Director. When approved by the Director, the analysis and conclusions will be transmitted to the complainant, according to the Provost's guidelines. However, FRB reserves the right to transmit the results of the original analysis to the Faculty member.

(4) The Director makes a decision on the appeal, based on the salary analysis, presents his/her conclusions to the Faculty member, and tries to resolve the issue.

(5) If the Faculty member is not satisfied with the decision, he/she may appeal to the Provost by following the procedures outlined under "University Review" in the May 9, 1994 memorandum, "Salary Appeals Process." Copies of this memorandum are available from the Libraries' human resources/personnel office and from members of the FRB.