How important is your pay?

How important is your pay? It is one way we are recognized for the work we do, and how much our employer values what we do. How much is enough? Is there a trade-off between pay and time off of work? How would you feel if your employer threatened to lower your compensation with no discussion or reason was given?  At the university, rumors are flying everywhere regarding faculty pay reductions for summer classes and online classes. Our department chair even mentioned in December that there would be changes in those areas in the new year. The faculty that teach large classes and large online classes and the summer classes tend to be clinical (i.e., non-tenured and non-tenure track faculty). These faculty are the lowest paid at the university and will feel any reduction the most. If you read my 12/14/19 and 12/15/19 blogs, you will understand why college education costs so much. You will also understand that taking money from the faculty members that teach the largest classes will be so repugnant to the lowest-paid faculty that teach those classes. This comes as the university continues to add administrative personnel that have nothing to do with delivering the product to the customers (i.e., education to the students). This reduction will reduce costs, but will not address the source of the problem, high ratio of staff and administrators to teaching faculty. In fact, it will probably have the opposite effect. Many teaching faculty will likely start searching for another job. I have started looking and have found several that are in Texas, my preferred location. One job post I found is two hours from my Brenham home and one is only an hour. I like where I currently teach and moving is a pain in the derriere. I am only looking because if the university follows through with the rumored changes, it will mean that they don’t get it, and I will not continue being content to teach here. I am not the only one. I have talked to several teaching faculty and they all say that if their pay is reduced, they will also look elsewhere. Why doesn’t the administration understand this? Are they like our legislators in Washington, so removed from reality that they just can’t see the problem?