TTS faculty reject revised salary structure after five-year freeze over pay gaps across ranks

The federal government has revised salaries for faculty employed under the Tenure Track System after five years, but the new structure has been rejected by the TTS faculty association over large differences in increases across academic ranks, The Express Tribune reported. 

Under a notification issued by the Ministry of Finance, professors will receive increases of between 3.1% and 4%, while assistant professors will get raises of up to 64% at the minimum stage and 55% at the maximum stage.

The notification ratifies the prime minister’s September 2021 decision to revise TTS salaries and applies the new rates from July 1. Officials said the Higher Education Commission provided the pay calculations.

The minimum salary of a professor has been increased from Rs394,875 to Rs407,230, a monthly rise of Rs12,355, or 3.1%. The maximum salary after 15 stages has risen by Rs27,580, or 4%, to Rs712,030.

For associate professors, the minimum salary has increased by Rs107,560, or 40.8%, from Rs263,250 to Rs370,810. The maximum salary has been raised by Rs152,020, or 31%, to Rs645,610.

Assistant professors received the largest increases. Their minimum salary rose by 64% from Rs175,500 to Rs288,020, while the maximum increased by Rs197,345, or 55%, to Rs553,820.

The faculty association said the revised structure creates overlaps between ranks. An assistant professor at stage five will receive Rs376,620, compared with Rs370,810 for an associate professor at the initial stage. Similarly, an associate professor at stage three will earn Rs407,450, slightly above the Rs407,230 starting salary of a professor.

The association said these anomalies could discourage promotions and weaken the performance-based system introduced in 2002 to attract qualified PhD researchers to public universities.

The notification states that employees serving in June 2026 will be placed in the TTS-2026 structure on a point-to-point basis at the corresponding stage above the minimum of their existing scale.

It also says universities must meet the financial cost of the revision from their own resources, with no additional liability to be assumed by the federal government.

The faculty association argued that the notification did not fully implement recommendations attributed to the Prime Minister’s Task Force, including benchmarking TTS salaries against gross BPS salaries at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, adding a 35% premium and providing annual indexation.

It also objected to the exclusion of allowances, saying TTS salaries remain all-inclusive while faculty under the Basic Pay Scale receive several allowances separately.

TTS salaries had remained frozen since 2021 despite multiple inflationary episodes, including inflation reaching 38%. The last recruitment under the system was made in 2020.

The notification was issued shortly before a scheduled meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, to discuss the matter.