Staff Senate Compensation Distribution Proposal

Staff Senate Compensation Committee Recommendations for Distribution of the Staff Salary Pool

The Budget Task Force recommended, and the Board of Trustees has approved, a salary pool increase of 4.25% for the 2008-2009 fiscal year. For staff, this pool has to cover general raises, merit raises, and market and internal equity salary adjustments. In the distribution of the pool among these three areas, the Staff Senate Compensation Committee places the highest priority on maximizing the amount of general increase given to all staff members. We recommend that 4% of the 4.25% salary pool increase should go toward general increases, which would only exceed by a small margin the 3.9% increase in the annual regional CPI from 2006 to 2007. We suggest that the increase be calculated as 4% of each staff member’s current salary. The remaining 0.25% of the salary pool increase would be allocated to market and internal equity adjustments. Given that the salary pool increase for the upcoming fiscal year is barely keeping pace with the increase in the cost of living, we recommend no allocation for merit increases this year.