Ozarks Tech raises pay for employees, adjunct instructors

Employees of Ozarks Technical Community College will soon see a bump in their paychecks.

The Ozarks Tech Board of Trustees voted April 8 to approve a 2% increase for all full-time and part-time employees who were in their positions by March 31 of this year. The pay level for adjunct instructors will also go up.

The changes are part of the proposed 2027 fiscal year budget, which must be finalized by the end of June.

Chancellor Hal Higdon said there was no discussion about skipping raises this year.

“We really want to try hard, particularly with our part-time and adjunct, to remain competitive,” Higdon said in an interview April 9. “The school district has always been pretty aggressive in what they do to compensate their people. We do compete with them, particularly with staff.”

Higdon said in addition to Springfield Public Schools and Missouri State University, the college competes for applicants against hospitals and businesses.

“We felt like if we could do 2% that would keep us up even with cohorts or maybe let us get a little ahead,” he said.

The 2% raise is slightly lower than the 3% increase provided for fiscal years 2025 and 2026.

“It was simple math. You look at your income coming in next year from the state, from tuition and from property tax and then work back from there. Of course, the state, unlike previous years, is not going to have an increase. We are being held flat,” Higdon said. “That means we couldn’t use any increase in state money to pay for raises.”

Higdon said an uptick in enrollment, tuition rates and property taxes will help cover the increased cost for utilities and health care, as well as the 2% raise.

Ozarks Tech has 675 full-time employees and a total of roughly 1,600 employees, including part-time staff and adjunct instructors.

Amy Bacon Peebles, chief of staff and executive vice chancellor of external relations, said the increase will cost an estimated $1.2 million next fiscal year. Employee salaries and benefits make up the largest line item in the annual budget.

The revised salary schedule for faculty, which goes into effect July 1, ranges from $36,318 to $85,213. Initial placement and movement on the salary schedule is based on years of experience and education level.

Adjunct instructors are paid a rate based on number of years teaching at Ozarks Tech. The range is $881 to $1,195 per credit hour for teaching lectures and $594 to $811 per credit hour for teaching labs.