According to Herodotus They Only Needed 300

“I do not know of any organization that achieves budget discipline from the bottom up. We need to be sufficiently top-down to get the job done. Nobody’s going to volunteer to make the kind of changes that are required.”
                  Christopher Edley (94)

Some of the discussion on Chris' post regarding the letter from the 36 in defense of their pensions has focused on the number of those affected.  Part of the problem in calculating this number has to do with the lack of clarity about what constitutes "covered compensation."  I cannot clarify for individual cases but the official program description for UCRP (for members with Social Security) indicates on page 26 the following definition of Covered Compensation:

Covered Compensation 
 
The gross monthly pay that an active employee receives for a regular and normal appointment, including pay while on sabbatical or other approved leave of absence with pay. Not included are:

pay for overtime unless in the form of compensatory time off;

pay for correspondence courses, summer session, intersession and for interquarter or vacation  periods or University extension courses, unless such employment constitutes part of an annual or indefinite appointment;
 
pay for a position that is not normally full time except if paid on a salary or hourly rate basis;

pay that exceeds the full-time rate for the regular, normal position to which the member is appointed;
 
pay that exceeds the base salary as negotiated under the General Health Sciences Compensation Plan or Medical School Clinical Compensation Plan;
 
pay that exceeds the established base pay rates, including nonelective deferred compensation, honoraria and consulting fees; payments received as uniform allowance, unless included as part of compensation for a regular and normal appointment;
 
pay that exceeds the IRC §401(a)(17) dollar limit.

For Plan year 2009–2010, the earnings limit is $245,000. (For those who were active members before July 1, 1994, the earnings limit for Plan year 2009–2010 is $360,000.); and payments received as housing allowance beginning with January 1994 earnings.

Covered compensation does not include pay from sources other than the University of California.

Now I have to admit that some of these categories make no sense to me but others may know better.

I would also point out that if you run the ucglobalpay and use the category of professor (you can do tis for the system and not for any single campus), put in a base salary of $245,000 (just for a test)  not only do the numbers drop considerably (you get 403 total but only 219 for professors in the 2009 year)  but they are overwhelmingly located--surprise!--in the medical schools and to a lesser extent in the professional schools.
Just for the record if you put $245,000 in the line for "gross pay" (although I suspect that gross pay is not the correct category given the covered compensation definitions above) you get total 2124, for Professors 851.  Similar patters about medical schools and professional schools seem to apply (although I did it quickly)

That is where the financial action is on this issue.