Critical Compensation Fund to address competitive salary gap

For the second year in a row, funding will be reallocated to a Critical Compensation Fund aimed at offering targeted salary increases to UW–Madison faculty and staff.

UW–Madison salaries have steadily fallen behind faculty and staff at peer institutions — a situation that makes it difficult to attract top talent, says Chancellor Rebecca Blank.

According to 2012-13 data published in April by the American Association of University Professors, full professors here rank last in earnings among 12 national peers, and assistant professors are in 11th place. In aggregate, UW–Madison faculty salaries are almost 12 percent below the peer group median, the second lowest point since 1985. Official salary peers include, among others, universities such as Michigan, UCLA, Ohio State and the University of Texas at Austin. When comparing many staff positions, UW–Madison is in a similar situation.

“If we wish to remain a preeminent institution, we have to fix this competitive compensation gap,” Blank says. “Though our budget this year is tight, it is essential that UW–Madison not lose any more ground on salaries.”

The program does not involve across-the-board increases, but instead provides to some faculty, academic and classified staff and limited term employees targeted pay adjustments to address issues of equity with peers, job retention and market influences.

For classified staff, the funds will be used to reward superior performance and will be distributed through the state’s Discretionary Merit Compensation program.

All faculty and staff increases will be base adjustments, not lump sum awards. The funding reallocated for the increases equals 1 percent of the campus’s total salary budget.

Under the program, divisions are directed to provide awards to between 20 percent and 30 percent of employees in each employee category, and to fully distribute these funds regardless of fund source. Divisions must submit their requests for adjustments to the Office of Human Resources by March 31, 2014. The pay adjustments may be effective as early as the first pay period after the receipt of the request. Adjustments can’t be applied retroactively.

Employees who received a CCF adjustment in 2012-13 are eligible for the program again this year, though at least half of the 2013-14 CCF awards must go to those who did not receive an adjustment in the previous year.

Deans and directors will approve CCF salary adjustments for faculty, staff and limited employees. For classified staff, adjustments also require approval from the Office of State Employment Relations.