What are High Demand funds?
What we call High Demand funds were established in Washington State law by HB 2158 in 2019. This law supplies funds to community and technical colleges “solely for increasing high-demand program faculty salaries, including but not limited to nursing educators, other health-related professions, information technology, computer science, and trades, including welding. Contract negotiations relating to salary increases must consider, and to the extent practicable establish, salaries that are comparable to industry professionals, and no less than the average salary identified by the college and university professional association for human resources or a similar organization.”
In short, these funds are provided by the state to increase the salaries of faculty in certain disciplines that are deemed “high demand” by the state legislature. Because these funds are for salary increases, the determination of which faculty receive the increased salaries and how large those increases are must be bargained between the college administration and the union.
It has been argued by the union that every faculty member here is valuable and so deserves an equal share of the funds assigned by this law. However, the text of the bill shown above is interpreted by legislators to apply to faculty in health professions, nursing, information technology, computer science, and STEM disciplines. That said, the value of our faculty should not be measured by whether or not they receive these funds.
Results of Negotiations
The union members who participated in the High Demand fund negotiations worked long and hard to include as many people as possible while staying consistent with the intent of the law. The agreement between the union negotiating team and the College administration team disburses these funds based on the courses an instructor teaches at the college. Here are some specific gains that were achieved during these negotiations.
- In addition to the course instructors that have received High Demand salary increase in the past, instructors for Nutrition and Business/Management courses will now receive a High Demand enhancement.
- Instructors for all classes in a department covered by the High Demand funding will receive the same salary enhancement. For example, all MATH courses will now be eligible for High Demand funds, not just those above a certain level.
How to Verify That You Received the Correct High Demand Funds
- Verify the amount of your High Demand salary enhancement. You should have received an email with an attached PDF from Joseph Roland in HR on or around May 16. The PDF attachment will have the dollar amount in it with an explanation of how it is calculated. If you have any questions about how this amount was calculated, please see this High Demand slide deck for details, which can only be accessed using your Edmonds faculty account.
- Login to ctcLink.
- Select HCM Self-Service, then Payroll, then Paychecks to find your paystubs.
- The High Demand salary enhancement should be on the 5/23/2025 paycheck. Select this paystub from the list. You will be shown a PDF of your paystub.
- Under the Hours and Earnings section of the paystub, there will be a line with the description Stipend that should show an amount that should match the amount shown in the PDF sent to you by Joseph Roland.
If the amount on the paystub does not match the amount in the PDF from Joseph Roland or you feel there were any mistakes made in the determination of the amount of High Demand funds you received, please send an email to the union’s VP for Dispute Resolution, Mary Whitfield, at mary.whitfield@edmonds.edu.
The union would like to thank our negotiating team, Mary Whitfield, Gabrielle McIntosh, Stephanie Bevans, and Erika Ferreri, for their hard work and for expanding the number of faculty that will receive these High Demand salary increases. If you have questions about the High Demand funds please contact Mary Whitfield at mary.whitfield@edmonds.edu.