Effective July 1, 2020, and going forward, when merit increases are approved for university staff, they will follow a standardized campus allocation model administered by Human Resources, in collaboration with Budget and Fiscal Planning and the Provost’s Office. All university staff employees across campus with the same performance rating will receive the same merit increase allocation determined by the campus executive leadership.

Merit increases are applied to base salary only, not to any additional temporary, non-base building pay. Pay increases for purposes other than merit (e.g. equity, compression, retention) should be addressed outside of the annual merit increase process throughout the year as they arise. University staff merit increases are uploaded to PeopleSoft HCM and typically effective January 1st.

Eligibility

To be eligible for a merit increase when a merit pool is available, university staff employees must:

  • Be in compliance with all applicable vaccine reporting requirements AND
  • Be in an active, regular (not temporary) university staff, research faculty or regular faculty appointment on the effective date (January 1) AND
  • Have a completed performance evaluation for the most recent performance cycle with a rating of meeting expectations or higher (3, 4, or 5) OR
  • New hires and transfers effective on or before September 1 who were not eligible to participate in the most recent performance evaluation cycle must have a performance plan in place as required by applicable campus guidelines and will be assigned either a “Meeting Expectations” rating or NMS (No Merit Score) by the hiring unit. Assigning NMS means the employee will be ineligible if there is a merit exercise effective January 1 AND
  • Employees receiving a base compensation increase effective on or before September 1 will remain eligible for a merit increase January 1, if the above criteria are also met.
  • Employees hired, promoted, transferred, or who receive other base compensation changes effective after September 1, will not be eligible for the campus merit exercise for January 1. Hiring units should plan the new salary for these appointments accordingly.
  • Temporary appointments and limited term appointments of 12 months or less are not eligible.

Since the Board of Regents may apply different merit restrictions to officer level positions, officer merit allocations will be managed separately from the campus-wide university staff allocation process. Some exceptions also apply to university staff employees paid on a Regent-approved employment contract.