Dear BHSNJ,

Ever get a sense that Rutgers doesn't value your work? Well, you are not alone.  

Rutgers and its corporate parent, RWJBH, wants you to work harder without fair compensation. During clinical meetings, RWJBH executives are insisting our clinician members should use untested AI to answer patient questions, should overbook patients, and should be in the office at the same time as they are rounding in the hospital. These executives are rebuking division chiefs for not hitting 75% wRVU clinical revenue goals.

The "hiring freeze" that was announced by Rutgers President Tate will only deepen staffing shortages and make workload increases worse. You can see all the impacted categories and exceptions here. They are also applying this freeze to faculty out-of-cycle raises and compensation for additional services, which our union has explicitly demanded be removed from the freeze given they have nothing to do with hiring.  

Notice what's missing from the freeze? The more than $2 million in bonuses RBHS administration pays itself each year. Such money is so sacrosanct that Rutgers even paid it out during the pandemic when Rutgers supposedly had a "fiscal emergency" and cancelled raises for everyone else.

Here’s what top administrators take home, according to public records:

• NJMS Dean: Dr. Robert Johnson salary of $911,811 in 2025. This is a 66.62% raise since 2018. His bonus in 2025 was $96,466, more than 10% of his base salary. Total bonuses since 2016: $629,411.43.

• RWJMS Dean: Dr. Amy Murtha salary of $861,332 in 2025. She received a $105,523.59 bonus, which is 12.25% of her base salary. Total bonuses since 2022: $335,433.40.

• Senior Vice Chancellor for Clinical Affairs: Dr. Vicente Gracias salary of $963,636.85 in 2025. This is a 22.27% raise since 2018. He received a $236,457.75 bonus in 2025, which was 24.54% of his salary. Total bonuses since 2016: $1,492,934.96.

• Senior Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration: Kathleen Bramwell salary of $571,603.60 in 2025. Since 2016, this has been a 27.65% raise. Her 2025 bonus was $112,841.10, 19.74% of her base salary.

• Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs: Dr. Justin Sambol He provides a little patient care and is mainly administrative. His base salary is $990,730.00. This is a 23.62% raise since 2018. His 2025 bonus was $124,315.31, which is 12.55% of his base salary. Total bonuses since 2018: $866,903.21.

• Vice Dean for RWJMS: Keith Lewis salary of $831,429.00 in 2025. His 2025 bonus was $98,623.92, 11.86% of his salary. Total bonuses since 2018: $789,699.48.

So while we are frozen, RBHS administration clearly is not.

And here’s what else is frozen: The Fully Variable Supplement (an extra component of pay based on productivity) for RWJMS faculty. This was supposed to be given to faculty and could amount to as much as $12 million per year in additional wRVU-based compensation. Since 2023, Rutgers has repeatedly negotiated in bad faith by not providing real proposals and critical information we need to make decisions on this program.

The result: you have not seen productivity pay increases in years. When Rutgers finally came back to the negotiating table in recent months, its proposal refused to extend these payments to entire departments like Emergency Medicine and other groups of faculty. As a result, we have now restarted our grievance on this issue at arbitration.

Our union will not rest until every RWJMS clinical faculty member gets a fair deal.

So, let's turn up the heat on this freeze!

If you are not a union member: Join today.

It takes all of us to win our demands: Sign onto our contract demands.

See our contract website.

Sincerely,

Catherine Monteleone, M.D., President, AAUP-BHSNJ New Brunswick
Jeff Levine, M.D., Vice-President, AAUP-BHSNJ New Brunswick
Josh Bucher, M.D., Secretary/Treasurer, AAUP-BHSNJ New Brunswick