Retirement still feels like a lifetime away for Tobias Higbie.
The 45-year-old associate professor of history at UCLA plans to teach for another two decades before his benefits come into the picture.
But Higbie is keeping up with the recent changes to the UC Retirement Plan, where rising costs have forced increased contributions and reduced benefits for future hires.
“(The issue) tends to make people turn off because it’s so complicated,” said Higbie, also a labor historian. “But I’ve come to see it’s worth giving some thought to.”
The sheer expenses of living in California, specifically in Los Angeles, make every penny of a salary count, Higbie said.
And while Los Angeles’ mild weather is attractive, “the cost of living is almost prohibitive,” said Higbie, who was in part drawn to UCLA for the benefits package.
In May, employees started paying into the retirement fund for the first time in 20 years, which is effectively a pay cut. On Dec. 13 the UC Board of Regents voted to create a less generous retirement program for employees hired after 2013 to reduce costs to the university. New hires will also have to work until age 65 ““ as opposed to age 60 ““ to receive maximum retirement benefits.
Current employees will have to pay an increasing amount into the fund. Within two years, 5 percent of an employee’s salary will go toward retirement.
Faculty and staff have accepted relatively lower salaries for years in anticipation of secure retirement benefits. Several years without a cost of living increase has tightened wallets across the board.
That’s a problem, said Shane White, chair of the UCLA Faculty Welfare Committee.
“Of this time, university leadership understands that salaries lag, but no realistic plan has been proposed,” White said.
Leroy Sisneros, the director of maintenance and alterations at UCLA, said employees living from paycheck to paycheck will feel more of a pinch than those with secure finances.
With parking costs and living expenses tilting upward, spouses losing jobs and adult children moving back home, Sisneros said his employees will have a harder time supporting families on a lower salary.
“It’s a bigger concern than just the individual,” Sisneros said.
The vast majority of his 800-person staff is union-represented. Unions like AFSCME Local 3299 have said the higher retirement age unfairly affects workers in more physically demanding jobs, which Sisneros said is a valid concern. Facilities management in particular has intense physical requirements with pushing and lifting.
For several years, the facilities department has worked with the Environmental Health and Safety Department on ergonomic training, Sisneros said. The department keeps up the maintenance of the campus and completes minor construction projects.
Sisneros said creating a less-costly program for new hires makes fiscal sense. Whether it’s fair, he’s not quite sure. He said it is politically easier to impose a policy on people who are not in the current workforce.
Right now, current employees are still trying to figure out what the effects will be.
William Evans, 40, works in the UCLA sign shop, which makes and installs nameplates, signs and custom graphic designs. On Monday, he was picking up a pay stub from the facilities management office.
He said he is not sure how the changes will affect him. But he has heard the complaints.
“Anything that takes away from end-game benefits” is a concern, Evans said, adding that he feels the university has sufficient funds to support its workers.
When asked about how much the increase in contributions will affect his take-home pay, he laughed and gestured with his pay stub.
“I’ll have to look at these and see,” he said.