Penn State's faculty salaries are considerably lower than peer universities, according to a report released by the University Faculty Senate Committee on Faculty Benefits yesterday.

The report, released at a Faculty Senate meeting, will aid the faculty senators in determining what the annual salary increase should be.

"This is much like Congress, deciding whether or not we should increase our own salaries. In times of financial difficulties, should we really do this," asked Jim Strauss, a senator for the Eberly College of Science.

Penn State President Graham Spanier said he believes the faculty members should not forego their raise.

Their salaries are already about 5 percent lower than their peers and declining a raise would make the salary gap even larger, Spanier said.

"Our goal is to try to go 1 percent above our peers every year for five years — or at least keep the increase even," he said.

It is necessary to keep Penn State salaries competitive with comparable universities to attract and keep staff members, Spanier added. Staff members deserve to have competitive salary rates, he said, considering how hard they work.

"We operate in a competitive marketplace — we all have families and went to school for 20 or 30 years to get where we are," Spanier said.

The report, which stated facts, needs to explain the differences in salaries, said Jamie Myers, senator for the College of Education.

"Ten years ago, we were pretty competitive with all of the colleges — in the last five years is when we lost this competitiveness. What's going on at our university compared with other universities?" Myers said.

The Committee on Faculty Benefits would be interested in seeking the help of other committees and task forces to help analyze the problems that cause these salary differences, said Keith Burkhart, committee chair.

The Committee on Faculty Benefits will be responsible for presenting a report next year that compares the salaries in various colleges at Penn State and the salaries at the commonwealth campuses, said Vice Chair Annette McGregor.

Doing this will assist in analyzing the problems that create the salary differences, McGregor said.