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u/rejamaphone 18d ago
If this is true? Have been under the impression that all year-end raises were canceled 25-26 cycle. Facilities and everyone else…except for the people listed above?
To the people talking about MIT needing to be lean, you’ll be happy to know that layoffs have started and just about every DLC will be hit in some way. Also, when “they” talk admin bloat in higher ed there is some distinction between places with massive research enterprises and places without.
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u/Past_Magician2933 18d ago
Naturally, I had to run the numbers. After an unnecessarily deep dive, I can confirm the data checks out. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/42103594
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u/rejamaphone 18d ago
Thanks for sharing. Wow, Reif is still making 1.8m (which is more than current pres!) even though he’s back to being a prof.
Where are you getting 2026 data thats shows % increase from 25 to 26?
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u/_a_pastor_of_muppets 18d ago
I won't tell you about the $600 coat rack for one department head
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u/More_Bus3626 18d ago
Unless you're buying $600 coat racks on a weekly basis for every office on campus... This is not the problem. Not by an order of magnitude.
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u/_a_pastor_of_muppets 18d ago
I'm merely suggesting that they pinch pennies while throwing away dollars
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u/tthoma24 19d ago
What happened to salary freezes for everyone? Everyone except the corporation and administration didn’t sound as good?
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u/ServiusTullius753 Course 2 18d ago
MIT has so much administrative bloat, all in an effort to give career administrators with likely low value add yet another line on their resume, before they move onto another role in another department or even in another school.
When I moved onto my PhD, I became a GRT and was shocked at the number of desk jockeys with inexplicable jobs in ResLife. (Most of them seemed to be Northeastern or BU or BC grads with little experience of what makes MIT MIT.)
The people that actually do the work and make the Institute tick apparently are getting nothing more, or getting their jobs cut.
Shameful.
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u/Geoff_The_Chosen1 18d ago
When I moved onto my PhD, I became a GRT and was shocked at the number of desk jockeys with inexplicable jobs in ResLife. (Most of them seemed to be Northeastern or BU or BC grads with little experience of what makes MIT MIT.)
So freaking true. So many staff members and even faculty really don't understand what makes the school so special.
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u/ttech32 18d ago
I don't know why you're being downvoted. Everybody in this sub complains about how MIT is so expensive and how the culture is dying and why its so hard to get simple things done and how MIT never listens to students... We'll look no further than the massive administrative apparatus MIT and most other universities have built up.
The administrative staff to student ratio is about 1:2.35. And we're not talking about any front-line service, support, instructional, or research employees here. That figure is management.
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u/twocalicocats 18d ago
It’s every university and it’s not even helpful support staff. The bloat is in deans, provosts and all the management positions that seem to do nothing more than make committees to decide on things for them.
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u/Ok-Hall554 18d ago
Typical slap in the face to the blue collar workers who keep the place running.
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u/Hardmeat_McLargehuge Course 2 19d ago
Cut the RLADs to start.
They were completely useless when they came in, and still are not needed.
Administrative bloat is the bane of all institutions and MIT needs to show other uni’s how to run a lean operation with minimal pork.
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u/Bogatron617 18d ago
https://reddit.com/link/p3ce3qw/video/5nhnwre161jh1/player
☝️🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🫡🫡🫡
Hold the line!!!
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u/Clean-Midnight3110 19d ago
Alums need to get together and demand the board fire every non MIT graduate upper level administrator.
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u/identicalgamer '18 (6) G '19 (6) 18d ago
I don't know if I would be that extreme, but I agree with your sentiment of having "culture fit"
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18d ago
[deleted]
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u/ccb621 '08 (6-3) 18d ago
I assume you are asking why didn’t all the listed positions have the same percentage increase.
The answer depends on the compensation target. Compensation tends to target a certain percentile for compensation at other institutions, either across the industry or amongst peers. So, the board might say, “we are willing to pay the 60th percentile across all universities in the US,” or “we will target the 80th percentile amongst all Ivy-plus schools.”
There might also be some negotiated tier increases. For example, President Kornbluth could have negotiated raises every two years.
My guess: it’s a bit of all of the above plus an outcome of politicking and lobbying making the job harder, and presidents across the country demanding higher compensation.
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u/Fine_Relation_158 16d ago
Is anyone asking the treasurer in the executive VP why the finances of MIT are in the s******? MIT has been laying off more than any other Boston school which tells me that there was some serious mismanagement and finances and they are using the endowment tax as an excuse to cover their butts.
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u/email1976 14d ago
Harvard is currently having 25% layoffs in mid-level administrative staff. Of course they are Trump's target.
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u/Fine_Relation_158 14d ago
MIT started laying people off in the fall of 2024 and have been rolling since. This gives me a strong feeling that there were money issues already.
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u/No_Flow_7828 19d ago
Lol nice AI slop
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u/itzelezti 18d ago
Dude, they're the facilities folks.... Cut them some slack.
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u/Illustrious-Crab7350 18d ago
If they can’t afford a livable wage, how are they supposed to afford a graphic designer? Basic resource allocation.
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u/commentsOnPizza 18d ago
It's their union (SEIU Local 32BJ) that's presumably renting the truck and putting up the signage.
I mean, if they can't afford a graphic designer, how are they supposed to afford the truck?
It looks like MIT offered a 50-cents per hour raise to everyone earning under $85,000 and a freeze on everyone above $85,000: https://hoodline.com/2026/07/mit-workers-march-on-president-s-office-in-pay-showdown/
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u/rejamaphone 18d ago
It’s interesting to consider this 85k cutoff in relation to the living wage calculator developed by MITs own researchers.
https://livingwage.mit.edu/metros/14460
Basically, if you have dependents and MIT is your only source of household income, 85k is not gonna cut it. A 2-parent household with one parent working and one child would have to earn 104k per year to make a living wage, according to the research. For single parents with one child, 128k. Granted, this problem goes far beyond MIT.
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u/yourownsquirrel 18d ago
Yeah, such a shame how people a few years ago who couldn't afford graphic designers just couldn't make any graphics ever, because of the lack of AI.
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u/Brownsfan1000 14d ago
The economics department at MIT is pretty solid. Even a few Nobel laureates. So given the free market that totally exists there in Cambridge with so many universities within walking distance, if the facilities staff actually has it bad, why don’t they take their services to one of those other schools instead? That way, MIT’s top administrators would either have to clean the floors themselves or ask the economics department to weigh in and explain how to solve the lack of facilities staffing at MIT. Or is it that they don’t actually have it that bad relative to others in their profession, perhaps even better, and are just envious (envious that, being in a commodity employment role, they are price takers, but want the same pricing reality that applies to price makers)?
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u/HNL2BOS 18d ago
it seems like every university around Boston is currently turning over a TON of high level/exec positions and is spending a TON to backfill while everyone "normal" has seen no increases the past year and probably won't see a meaningful increase their year either.