Regents set executive salaries

The Executive Committee of the UW System Board of Regents has approved annual salary levels for the chancellors, vice chancellors and senior officers of the UW System.

Pay plan increases are retroactive to July 1 under a plan approved in October by the legislature’s Joint Committee on Employment Relations.

Regent President Jay L. Smith says the salary increases are funded by existing pay plan dollars as well as money reallocated from the base budget. “There will be no increase in tuition or tax dollars to provide these salaries,” says Smith.

The new salaries are the first to be set utilizing management flexibility granted to the board by the legislature and governor in the 2001-03 biennial budget. By statute, salary range authority for 20 specific senior level positions was shifted to the board from the Department of Employment Relations and the Joint Committee on Employment Relations.

This change is intended to ensure that the UW System can attract and retain top executive talent at a time when the demands placed on these leaders, such as private fundraising, involvement in local and regional economic development, and greater accountability reporting, are increasing.

Covered by the change are all 15 chancellors, the vice chancellors at UW–Madison and UW-Milwaukee, the two system senior vice presidents, and the system president. Today’s actions bring executive salaries more in line with the competitive national market for university leadership, says Smith.

Even so, “our assigned salaries fall below the midpoint of our very conservative ranges. After addressing the five most serious cases, the total increase for all other UW executives is 3.2, the same as the average increase for faculty and academic staff.”

The board’s actions correct other discrepancies,” he says, “including bringing all individuals at least to the minimum of their range and compensating for several salaries that were frozen for two years or more.

The board’s longstanding policy is that System leaders should be paid, whenever possible, within an established salary range tied to peer data. Comparative peer data show other public universities paid an average of $302,000 or more last year to system and research university presidents, and an average of $170,000 to comprehensive university presidents, says Smith.

The board set UW System President Katharine Lyall’s salary at $299,000. Chancellor John Wiley of UW–Madison will receive $298,250. Wiley’s salary includes amounts received from the UW Foundation for personal services rendered outside of his duties as chancellor. Wiley still will receive less than most peers in a group of 11 universities for which the median is $304,800.

UW–Madison Provost Peter Spear will receive $220,000.

The ranges set earlier this year by the Board of Regents for each position reflect national market data for peer institutions. The ranges for vice presidents and comprehensive vice chancellors are recommended by the secretary of the Department of Employment Relations and approved by the Joint Committee on Employment Relations.