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Harvard proposed keeping non-tenure-track faculty salaries flat through June 2026 during negotiations with their union on Thursday — an early sign that the University will resist major wage increases as it weathers a funding crisis.

The proposal — Harvard’s first economic offer to any campus union since it was hit with a massive endowment tax hike — includes subsequent annual increases of 2 percent, 2 percent, and 2.25 percent after 2026.

Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers represents roughly 3,600 academic workers ranging from postdoctoral workers to lecturers and preceptors. It has been bargaining for a first contract since last September.

Though provisions on wages and benefits are typically hammered out after other non-economic issues like worker classifications and grievance and arbitration have been resolved, Harvard and HAW-UAW have not come to agreements on the vast majority of proposals. First contracts often require the longest negotiation periods because they set entirely new policies for represented workers.

But with inflation in the Boston area hovering around 3 percent the past few months, the proposed 2 percent pay raises are not likely to keep up, according to Petra E. Todd, a labor economist who chairs the economics department at the University of Pennsylvania.

In the University’s proposed pay schedule, non-tenure-track minimum salaries range from $50,000 for fellows to to $102,300 for specialized researchers. It is unclear whether the proposal increases the minimums, most of which are not publicly available.

In a statement over the weekend, Harvard spokesperson Sarah E. Kennedy O’Reilly wrote that workers represented by HAW-UAW received raises if they moved to a job title with a higher-paid classification under the step system for non-tenure-track faculty salaries. No other employees represented by the union received raises, according to Kennedy O’Reilly.

According to HAW-UAW bargaining committee member Adam Sychla, the union is not likely to respond to the wage proposal until it negotiates with Harvard on related provisions, including worker titles and classifications. The union is also waiting on information about existing salaries and worker positions, per Sychla.

“There’s not a way to engage on this as things stand,” Sychla said.

Harvard’s proposal is consistent with its financial strategy in facing down a nearly $3 billion in federal funding cut from the spring. The University instituted a hiring freeze and paused merit-based wage increases for faculty and non-union staff. Several of its schools have already made layoffs.

Though the 2 percent raises are slightly lower than inflation, Todd said they might still

be reasonable given Harvard’s financial situation.

“Elite universities are facing a lot of grant funding and endowment tax uncertainties, given the changes that the Trump administration has proposed, which is why they need to be cautious in terms of future compensation guarantees,” Todd wrote in a statement.

“In such a tough environment, guaranteeing a 2% raise actually seems reasonable to me,” she added.

The minimum worker salary under Harvard’s current proposal is $50,000, for fellows in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the School for Engineering and Applied Sciences. Per the proposal, all minimum salaries would increase by one-half of across-the-board increases for fiscal years 2027, 2028, and 2029. And any automatic school-specific salary step systems currently in place would be phased out by June 2026.

Workers in HAW-UAW and other campus unions have repeatedly urged the University to pull on $16 billion in unrestricted endowment funds to pay workers. According to Given and Sychla, Harvard CFO Ritu Kalra attended bargaining on Thursday and gave a presentation on University finances and the endowment.

University spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote in a statement that the University’s offer to HAW-UAW “aligns with steps being taken across the University to navigate substantial financial uncertainties.”

“Members of the Harvard Academic Workers union have a significant role in how the University fulfills its teaching and research mission, and Harvard remains committed to engaging in these ongoing negotiations in good faith and to providing support and resources for them to carry out their work, even during these challenging times,” Newton wrote.

Clarification: October 6, 2025

A previous version of this article stated that a University spokesperson confirmed that all workers on a salary scale received a raise on July 1, 2025. To clarify, workers represented by HAW-UAW received raises only if they moved into higher-paid classifications under Harvard’s step system for non-tenure-track faculty.

—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at hugo.chiasson@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.

—Staff writer Amann S. Mahajan can be reached at amann.mahajan@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @amannmahajan.