Varying CEC – Employee compensation increase may be smaller than expected

Even though Idaho Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter requested a 3 percent increase in employee compensation in conjunction with the Change in Employee Compensation (CEC) Committee”s plan, not all University of Idaho employees will likely receive a 3 percent raise, said UI Vice President for Finance Brian Foisy.

Foisy and others from the Division of Finance attended the March 8 Faculty Senate meeting to explain what the compensation increase means for university employees.

“When the legislature funds a 3 percent salary increase, that doesn”t mean every single employee on campus gets a 3 percent salary increase,” Foisy told the senate.

Foisy reviewed the eligibility guidelines that help determine how much of an increase in compensation each employee would receive. Many factors are mentioned in the guidelines, including performance evaluations and the completion of the given employee training modules.

Because of the varying criteria, Foisy said most UI employees will likely get a 2 percent increase in compensation instead of 3 percent.

Faculty Secretary Don Crowley said the press reports about the compensation increases could have misled some employees to believe they would automatically receive a 3 percent raise. He said it may be better to use the figure of 2 percent instead if most employees will receive that.

“When you actually know what that number is, then I think that”s the number that you should use,” Crowley said. “Rather than let that 3 percent become the general stated number and have people saying, “Well everybody got 3 percent, why did I get 2?””

Foisy said the language in the guidelines attempts to address that issue.

Faculty Sen. Yun Chung of the College of Business and Economics asked if there was any way that people could see how much of an increase in compensation other employees received.

UI Budget Director Tina Mahoney said salaries are published in budget books, but there would be no line-by-line document for people to compare their pay.

Faculty Sen. Patrick Hrdlicka of the College of Science asked if a merit-based salary increase method was considered. Foisy said Hrdlicka made a good point, but because there is no well-defined merit-based pay system at UI currently, there would be no way to make it consistent throughout all university departments and colleges.

Erin Bamer can be reached at [email protected]  or on Twitter @ErinBamer