Staff raises only part of overall salary picture

Classified staff and service professionals at NAU received a 3.25 percent salary increase on July 2, but there is more to the salary picture than the state-funded increase.

This past year, the university also distributed more than $1 million in salary increases as a result of the university's workforce planning initiative, which addresses pay equity issues across campus. The workforce planning effort resulted in salary increases for more than 450 staff and service professionals: about 51 percent for equity adjustments, 22 percent for reclassifications and 17 percent for market changes.

Over each of the last three years, NAU's market position for classified staff has improved from 10.4 percent behind market in 2004 to about 5 percent behind market in 2007. The market position for service professionals has advanced from 7.7 percent to about 1 percent behind market for the same period.

The university has invested more than $11 million in classified staff and service professional salaries since July 2005 from internal allocations combined with state-funded increases.

"We have made steady and significant strides toward market equity for our staff," said President John Haeger. "It is a never-ending process to monitor how we are doing in comparison to similar institutions, because we need to ensure fairness in compensation for our extremely talented staff at NAU.

"This year the provost and I determined that we needed to make a larger investment in faculty salaries, since those are lagging about 9 percent behind market."

The president said that workforce planning has proved effective in helping the university strategically determine its staffing requirements and setting forth appropriate compensation based on job responsibilities.

"Future positive budgets and enrollment numbers would help the university greatly as we continue to address our No. 1 priority—faculty and staff salaries," Haeger said.