Summary
Today, your UTFA Negotiating Team was engaged in arbitration advocating for a 4% across-the-board (ATB) salary increase for faculty members and librarians, retroactive to July 1, 2025. Our proposed increase is justified by current and recent inflation rates and helps compensate for the erosion of our salaries since 2020. In contrast, the University Administration is seeking cuts to UTFA members’ real salaries via an ATB proposal of 1.5%. This figure does nothing to catch up on past inflation shortfalls, and even falls below the current rate of inflation, which would deepen rather than reverse the erosion of our real wages. Despite the University of Toronto's financial statements clearly showing otherwise (for citations, see our longer description, below) and publicly declaring a “strong financial position,” the Administration nonetheless claims it cannot afford to pay us more. Nevertheless, for 2024-2025, the senior Administration found sufficient funds to grant members of the President’s Leadership Team an average of 11.49% in annual salary increases. UTFA’s Team maintains that UTFA members are recognized internationally for their excellence, and compensation for UofT faculty members and librarians must reflect the reality that their work is world-class. For more details, read on.
The Full Story
Arbitration Newsflash: Your UTFA Negotiating Team fights for inflationary catch-up while the senior Administration proposes cuts to your real wages
Dear Colleagues,
Today, your UTFA Negotiation Team has presented its arguments before Arbitrator Eli Gedalof to determine your salary increases retroactive to July 1, 2025.
UTFA’s position is clear: our members are entitled to full inflationary salary catch-up and to protect our top-of-market position. The University of Toronto is the highest-ranked Canadian university and one of the top-ranked public universities in the world. UTFA members, the faculty and librarians who work to maintain these standards of excellence, deserve to be compensated in keeping with their world-class status. We are seeking an increase of 4%, retroactive to July 1, 2025. We have proposed that this amount be split into two portions: 3% across-the-board for all members and 1% of the salary mass to be distributed evenly among members (while pro-rated to their percentage of appointment). This distribution of ATB will provide additional support for some of our lowest-paid faculty and librarians.
The University Administration disagrees. It has proposed a 1.5% increase, which falls short of inflation and, in real terms, represents a pay cut for UTFA members. While the Administration opposes real wage growth for faculty and librarians, it has provided salary increases to members of the upper administration that far exceed inflation. For 2024, members of the President’s Leadership Team received an average annual salary increase of 11.49%, in contrast to UTFA’s 2.5% ATB awarded for 2024-2025. Since 2020, compounded UTFA ATB increases equal 16.9%. During the same period, members of the President’s Leadership Team, for example, saw increases of 37.93%. (See p. 12 of UTFA’s Brief.)
The Administration argues that it cannot afford to pay increases above 1.5% despite its 2023-2025 Financial Reports indicating its “strong financial position”, and a 2025 net income of $519 million and an increase in revenue of 5.1%. It justifies its proposal with cherry-picked data points and misleading tables. It argues that increases to compensation for UTFA members would mean that resources may need to be “diverted” from other priorities, including supporting students.
This is a false choice. Fair compensation for faculty and librarians is not a diversion. Nor is there any basis to conclude that the Administration cannot afford a 4% increase. To the contrary, the Administration has already budgeted a 4.1% increase to compensation this year.
The 2021-2023 surge in inflation hit UTFA members hard; your Negotiating Team will continue to fight against the inflationary erosion of our salaries and to re-establish UofT faculty and librarians firmly at the top of the market. We have had some measurable success. Through the last two rounds of bargaining and interest arbitration, we achieved increases of 8% in 2022, 3.5% in 2023, and 2.5% in 2024.
We have already made some progress towards fair compensation today: the Administration initially sought to exclude ATB increases from pensionable earnings for retired UTFA members, reducing the lifetime pensionable earnings of recent retirees. UTFA’s Team would not accept this outrageous exclusion; fortunately, the Administration succumbed to our position just before the commencement of today’s hearing. The Administration is now properly treating the ATB that retired members earned the same way as it does active members, including ATB increases in pensionable earnings.
UTFA and the Administration presented arguments on the application of the 2023-2025 awarded ATB increases for recent hires and former employees in arbitration before Arbitrator Gedalof on November 6, 2025. Throughout today, UTFA and the Administration presented arguments on salary increases for 2025-2026. You can read the briefs submitted to Arbitrator Gedalof on the salary issues here:
· UTFA’s Brief, submitted November 12, 2025
· UPDATED: UTFA’s Brief, submitted November 12, 2025, Updated November 18, 2025
· The Administration’s Brief, submitted November 12, 2025
· UTFA’s Reply Brief, submitted November 17, 2025
· UPDATED: UTFA’s Reply Brief, submitted November 17, 2025, Updated November 18, 2025
· The Administration’s Reply Brief, submitted November 17, 2025
We have sought an expedited arbitration decision (with reasons to follow) and we await confirmation from the Administration and the Arbitrator. UTFA members have waited long enough.
We want to hear from you! Do you think that the senior Administration’s proposal of a below-inflation increase of 1.5% is fair and appropriate? UTFA’s Negotiating Team wants to hear from you – please contact faculty@utfa.org to share your thoughts!
Sincerely,
Terezia Zorić
UTFA President and Co-chief Negotiator
Jun Nogami
UTFA Vice-President, Salary, Benefits, Pensions and Workload and Co-chief Negotiator