CIRM Alleges Misrepresentation of Salary Proposal

The California stem cell agency says we have "misrepresented the issue on the salaries" in our post below, an allegation with which we do not agree.

Here is the statement this afternoon from Ellen Rose, interim communications officer for CIRM:

"You have misrepresented the issue on the salaries in your post. As I stated over the weekend, we are changing the ranges. This does not translate into a salary increase for anyone. We’ve done this to be in line with what we learned from the Mercer survey. Your post makes it seem like salaries are being automatically increased, which is not the case."

Here is our response to her:

"I repeatedly referred to salary ranges, including in the headline. But I will be glad to carry your comments verbatim. Meanwhile, do you want explain the rationale, such as why salary ranges should be increased. If they should be increased, why the 75th percentile? Why increase salary ranges in a year when the state is facing a budget crisis? And why increase the ranges unless there is the intent to pay someone at the level in the not too distant future? There is no point increasing salary ranges if there is no intent to pay at that level.

"Again, I will carry responses to those questions verbatim or to other comments in support of the pay range increase. Thanks."

The boosts in the salary ranges may be warranted, but CIRM has not made a case, particularly for such an ill-timed effort.