At the first day of bargaining with management, the union was told that Berklee full-time faculty salaries ranked in the top half of peer institutions.

Really?

We did our own analysis of Berklee full-time salaries by rank -- professor (PR), associate professor (AO), and assistant professor (AI) -- compared with other institutions. We used publicly available data and transparent methodologies. Here's what we found.

Methodology 1, Ranking according to IPEDS 2016–17 report:
Berklee ranks 17th of 21 (19th percentile), Boston Conservatory dead last.

Methodology 2, Ranking according to similarly-focused schools in MA
Berklee ranks 9th of 13 (31st percentile), Boston Conservatory dead last.

Methodology 3: Ranking according to similarly-sized schools in southern New England.
Berklee ranks 10th of 15 (33rd percentile), Boston Conservatory dead last.

Methodology 4: Ranking according to a combination of Methodologies 1-3
Berklee ranks 33rd of 45 (27th percentile), Boston Conservatory dead last.

The full tables and methods can be found here.