Copyright© 2005 by School Services of California, Inc.

                                      Volume 18                   For Publication Date: December 2, 2005             No. 24

Ask SSC . . .  

What Is Maintenance of Effort, and How Is It Measured?

Q.                We are in the middle of negotiations with our teachers’ union. The union has indicated to us that it thinks that our district’s “maintenance of effort” for the unit is not very good. What do they mean by “maintenance of effort,” and how is it measured?  

A.                 In its simplest form, maintenance of effort means that what you are offering in compensation and working conditions will allow you to maintain relative comparability over time. The Educational Employment Relations Act requires that factfinding panels consider a “comparison of the wages, hours, and conditions of employment of the employees involved in the factfinding proceeding with the wages, hours, and conditions of employment of other employees performing similar services and with other employees generally in public school employment in comparable communities.”  

There are many ways to demonstrate your effort to a specific bargaining unit. A percentage of expenditure budget allocated to a specific bargaining unit is one way. Showing that the percentage allocated to that unit has remained constant or has increased over time can be compelling. In addition, comparing your percentage to your neighbors’ or to the statewide average can demonstrate your effort toward that unit.  

Another way is to lay out the salary increases given over a set number of years, along with step and column and health benefit increases, compared to the same information from neighboring districts that are in comparable communities. If your total over that period of time is in the mid range of the comparable districts or higher, you could argue that you have maintained your effort. In addition, including other working conditions, like class size or extra preparation periods, is appropriate if you are providing extra effort in areas other than salary and benefits.  

Yet another way is to compare your total compensation ranking at the beginning of a time span to your total compensation ranking today. If you have maintained or improved your relative position or ranking over the time span, you can again argue that you have maintained your effort.  

Maintenance of effort is not the same as comparability. A district could be ranked near the bottom of the salary rankings, but if it is now giving higher raises or spending a greater share of its budget in the bargaining unit, it could have greater maintenance of effort and still have low salaries.  

Like many aspects of negotiations, demonstrating your maintenance of effort to specific bargaining units is not a science and there are many ways to do it. However, demonstrating it in a way that is reasonably explained and that the bargaining teams or a reasonable third-party can understand is the best way.  

—John Gray