A gap of three percent separates the California State faculty and California State officials. At least that’s the number that may end up causing a strike.

According to PE.com, professors and lecturers are asking for a bump in pay but CSU officials aren’t budging.

It is the fourth time in eight years that Cal State faculty so riled up about salaries that it is threatening an all-out strike. Today the school administrators will vote whether to listen to the demands, or risk the faculty refusing to work for wages they feel are too low.

The percentage that’s causing the squabble amounts to $2,900 for a full professor and $1,800 for a lecturer working full-time.

That’s not a lot of money on the front end, but with the size of the school’s faculty, the total comes to around $61 million.

The school is not completely against a raise for faculty members and has offered 2 percent. This is the same raise that other university employees were granted earlier this year.

The vote on whether to strike will take place today. Classes won’t immediately be cancelled though. If the faculty union does decide to strike, it won’t take place until the beginning of 2016.

I hope the school and faculty can come to some sort of agreement that means students won’t be impacted negatively. The top-notch professors are the reason Cal State is so sought after so the school should consider that heavily when looking over these salary demands. Talent and expertise should be compensated when possible for the benefit for student retention and success following graduation.