Employees who have not completed all applicable vaccine reporting requirements are not eligible for compensation increases.

Eligibility and General Questions

Which employees are eligible to receive the 1% one-time non-base building payment?

 Employees who have not completed all applicable vaccine reporting requirements are not eligible for compensation increases.

  • Eligible employees for the 1% one-time non-base building payment include regular faculty, research faculty, and university staff who have an active appointment as of September 1, 2021 and who also meet the conditions below.
    • ​Regular faculty who have active appointments as of September 1, 2021 and IF the employee was employed at the end of the 2020 performance management cycle, received a ‘meeting expectations’ or higher performance rating, and completed FRPA if required. 
    • University staff who have active appointments as of September 1, 2021 and IF the employee was employed at the end of the 2020-2021 performance management cycle, received a ‘meeting expectations’ or higher performance rating.
    • Research faculty who have active appointments as of September 1, 2021 and IF the employee was employed at the end of the 2020-2021 performance management cycle,  received a ‘meeting expectations’ or higher performance rating. 
  • The following employees with an active appointment as of September 1, 2021 are eligible:
    • Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty
    • Sr. Instructors (including those with the working title of “Teaching Professor”) and Instructors (must be on multi-year agreements) 
    • Institute Directors
      • Scholars-in-Residence (must be on multi-year agreements) 
    • Artists-in-Residence (must be on multi-year agreements) 
    • Research Faculty (not including temporary)
    • University Staff (not including temporary)
  • Classified staff, graduate and undergraduate student employees, and temporary employees are not eligible. 
  • Summer research, teaching, administrative, or additional appointments are not included. Only primary appointments will be considered.
Which employees are eligible to receive the 3% base building salary increase?

 Employees who have not completed all applicable vaccine reporting requirements are not eligible for compensation increases.

  • Eligible employees include regular faculty, research faculty, and university staff who have an active appointment as of September 1, 2021 and who also meet the conditions below.
    • ​Regular faculty who have active appointments as of September 1, 2021 and IF the employee was employed at the end of the 2020 performance management cycle, received a ‘meeting expectations’ or higher performance rating, and completed FRPA if required. 
    • University staff who have active appointments as of September 1, 2021 and IF the employee was employed at the end of the 2020-2021 performance management cycle, received a ‘meeting expectations’ or higher performance rating.
    • Research faculty who have active appointments as of September 1, 2021 and IF the employee was employed at the end of the 2020-2021 performance management cycle,  received a ‘meeting expectations’ or higher performance rating. 
    • Graduate students on assistantship appointments effective January 1, 2022 in job codes 1502, 1503, 1505, & 1506. Minimum base contract rates will increase by 3%. 
  • ​The following employees with an active appointment as of September 1, 2021 are eligible:
    • Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty
    • Sr. Instructors (including those with the working title of “Teaching Professor”) and Instructors (must be on multi-year agreements) 
    • Institute Directors
    • Scholars-in-Residence (must be on multi-year agreements) 
    • Artists-in-Residence (must be on multi-year agreements) 
    • Research Faculty (not including temporary)
    • University Staff (not including temporary)
    • Graduate students on assistantship appointment in job codes in job codes 1502, 1503, 1505, & 1506
  • Classified staff, student hourly employees, and temporary employees are not eligible. 
  • Faculty with additional appointments that are calculated as a percentage of base salary may be impacted. 
Why are new employees hired after 9/1/21 not eligible for the January increases?

The University of Colorado Board of Regents approves annual compensation increases for all CU campuses. Each campus determines the criteria for implementing increases including assigning eligibility dates to allow for budget planning, data analysis and processing time.  Previously under the annual July 1 compensation cycle, new hire eligibility was February 1. With the annual compensation cycle transition to January 1, the new hire eligibility cutoff date has shifted to September 1. Annual salary adjustments are fundamentally merit based and also help keep current employees' salaries competitive. Employees hired within the past 2-4 months are already at competitive hiring rates and are eligible for annual increases in the next future cycle but not immediately after hire. 

When will the base pay increase or one-time non-base building payment be received if I am eligible?

Eligible employees will see these changes in their January 2022 end of month paychecks.

Will taxes be deducted?

Taxes will automatically be deducted from the payment and a breakdown can be viewed in “Paychecks” in MyCUInfo.

Why are classified staff not eligible?

 A. Classified staff received a 3% increase in July 2021.

How are frontline employees defined for the purposes of the one-time recruitment and retention incentive?

The one-time recruitment and retention incentive is available for specific instances where units seek to support positions that are hard to fill, hard to retain and are mostly student facing or safety related. Such positions may include dining services, custodial, bus drivers, health care technicians, police officers, and other similar roles. Additional information, including a process for requesting funding, will be forthcoming.

What is the process for communicating these increases to eligible employees?

Eligible employees will be notified of each compensation increase via a campus email at the end of January. These communications will be managed centrally. Individual units do not need to send their own notifications. Copies of employee base pay notifications will be retained in the employee's personnel file through OnBase in HR Records.

Temporary Faculty (Lecturer & Adjunct)

Which employees are eligible to receive the 3% one-time non-base building payment?

Eligible employees include temporary faculty who have an active appointment for the Spring 2022 semester in the following jobs:

  • Lecturer
  • Professor Adjunct, Associate Professor Adjunct, Assistant Professor Adjunct, Senior Instructor Adjunct, Instructor Adjunct
  • Sr. Instructors (including those with the working title of “Teaching Professor”) and Instructors (on a less than one-year appointment)
  • Scholars-in-Residence (on a less than one-year appointment)
  • Artists-in-Residence (on a less than one-year appointment)
  • Visiting Faculty (on a less than one-year appointment)
  • Faculty Fellow (excluding administrative appointments)
How will the 3% one-time payment be calculated?

The 3% one-time non-base building payment will be calculated based on contracts entered for the Spring semester for lecturers and other contract by course temporary faculty. For those faculty on Academic Year appointments, it will be prorated from January 1, 2022.

When will the 3% one-time payment be received by employees?

Eligible employees will see the payment in their February end of month paychecks after Spring 2022 appointments and contracts are finalized post census.

How will the 3% compensation rate increase be implemented?

The “contract renewal” or 3% compensation rate increase will be for the start of academic year 2022-23 (or in summer 2022 for those that have appointments in eligible job codes that begin during the summer semester). Units will adjust compensation schedules correspondingly with a minimum 3% increase for contract by course faculty rates.

Are addendums to Spring 2022 offer letters for Temporary Faculty (Lecturer & Adjunct) required?

No offer letter revisions or addendums for spring 2022 appointments need to be processed. The corresponding rate schedule increases will be made to summer and academic year 2022-23 appointments.

HR & Payroll Questions

What do I need to do as an HR Liaison to ensure the payment is accurate and completed?

Budget and Fiscal Planning and Human Resources will coordinate amounts and upload into HCM.  HR Liaisons will be able to review and confirm payments once entered into HCM.

Are addendums to graduate students on assistantship appointments offer letters required for this increase?

Offer letters for graduate students on assistantship appointments may need addendums to the Academic Year offer letter. Please see the Graduate School website for more details. 

From what date is the 3% base building increase calculated?

 

  • The 3% base building increase is calculated from the employee's December salary as of the December end of month payroll cutoff.The effective date of the increase will be 1/1/2022.
  • In order for HR to upload employee increase information within payroll deadlines, promotions or base pay increases not already in process with campus HR as of 11/9/21 should be held and processed after the January compensation increases have been implemented.

 

How is this one-time payment calculated for regular salaried employees?

The one-time payment is based on the employee's regular salary rate as of the December end of month payroll cutoff and is equivalent to 1% of the annual academic year contract or 12-month salary. This does not include summer appointments or other administrative/academic appointments for academic faculty. Only the academic year, or 12-month (for faculty with 12-month appointments), base salary for faculty will be considered in the calculation. The effective date of the payment will be 1/1/2022. Eligible employees must be in an active appointment on 1/1/2022 to receive the payment which will be paid in their January end of month paycheck.

How is this one-time payment calculated for regular (non-temporary) hourly staff employees or research faculty whose percent of time changes throughout the year?

For hourly staff employees and research faculty, the campus will base the increase on the employee’s earnings from November 1, 2020 through October 31, 2021.

How do the January 2022 compensation increases impact the campus equity analysis work for Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act compliance?
  • As the campus completes its analysis of salaries for compliance with the Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (CEPEWA), the review will include Jan. 1 adjusted base salary information.
  • Additional information will be communicated to campus when available.

Compensation Cycle Date Shift

Why did the Board of Regents approve a change in the merit salary pool cycle from fiscal year to calendar year?

This change will allow decisions on merit pool increases to be made once fall census has occurred and the campus has a more accurate picture of its revenue outlook for the year.

Which employee populations are included in the fiscal year to calendar year compensation cycle date shift?
  • The compensation cycle date shift impacts regular faculty, research faculty, and university staff.
  • The compensation cycle date for classified staff is determined by the Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration for all classified employees statewide.
Won’t this shift create a large gap between the end of the current performance management cycles and the payout of any merit increases? Will there be a change to performance management cycle timelines to address this?

Yes.  Performance cycles are being changed for university staff to July 1 - June 30 of each year.  This aligns with the current research faculty performance cycle.  See the Perfomance page for more information. No change in performance cycle is planned for regular faculty or research faculty.

Financial Questions

What is the source of funding for the 1% one-time payment?

The 1% one-time payment will be funded and directly charged to central campus sources, made available by the CU System for all campuses. One-time payments made to eligible employees funded from gifts, grants, contracts, or auxiliary funds will also be directly charged to these central campus sources. 

What is the source of funding for the 3% base building increase?

While our campus did not meet the revenue thresholds necessary to trigger an automatic compensation increase, the CU System Office will be restructuring the mechanism for assessing costs to campuses, freeing up funds to provide these ongoing increases. Campus will cover increases for General Funds- employees funded on other sources will need to self-fund.