Select salary adjustments advance compensation plan

President John Haeger has announced salary adjustments this spring to advance NAU's long-term compensation goal of achieving greater market equity in faculty and staff salaries. The adjustments impact a limited number of faculty and staff.

The compensation changes, which total about $1.3 million, will be implemented this spring and include:

• Full-time faculty: market adjustments and years-in-rank compression
• Academic professionals: market adjustments
• Service professionals: market adjustments
• Students and temporary employees earning less than minimum wage: bring hourly rates to the new state minimum wage of $6.75

Classified staff will not be affected by these adjustments. Classified staff market adjustments were addressed through the "re-grade" project in 2005.

Full-time faculty and academic professionals
The January adjustments for full-time faculty and academic professionals are one-time, permanent adjustments.

The market adjustments are based on a standard data set from the College and University Professional Association, which conducts compensation surveys nationwide. Faculty positions were compared, by discipline and rank, to the average salaries of similar CUPA institutions. Salaries of full-time faculty and academic professionals at NAU are established at a minimum of 85 percent of the CUPA average.

In addition, the university has addressed compression of faculty salaries within rank designed to alleviate some of the within-rank flattening of salaries caused by the July 2005 CUPA-based increase.

Haeger noted that the university must maintain flexibility in addressing compensation issues and that the methodology for the adjustments being made this spring may not represent the same strategy in the future. The university will continue to consult with the Arizona Board of Regents, the President's Cabinet, deans, academic chairs, Faculty Senate and the Joint Working Group for Staff Salaries to address future compensation plans. However, faculty and staff compensation will continue to be an important planning-budget priority for the university.

"I am committed to addressing faculty and staff salaries every year to the best of the university's ability to fund increases, but the methodology and amounts committed are highly dependent on state general fund appropriations and net tuition revenue, and neither source is necessarily dependable," said Haeger.

Approximately 200 faculty will receive salary increases. Overall, faculty salaries average 95 percent of CUPA discipline medians.

Visiting faculty, instructors and part-time faculty are not eligible for increases.

Service professionals
Upon the completion of the service professional compensation project, the most significant market issues will be addressed in February. More information about this adjustment will be available in late January on the Human Resources web site.

Students and temporary employees earning less than minimum wage
Although the state universities are exempt from the minimum wage increase, which was approved by voters in November, NAU will voluntarily increase the lowest hourly wage to match the new state minimum of $6.75 per hour. This increase will be effective Jan. 1 and will be reflected in the pay period of Jan. 19. It will affect only student workers and some temporary employees.

Details on the increases are available on the Human Resources web site.