What is the Staff Market Equity Program?
As we work to advance our mission and continually strive for excellence, we know that our hardworking staff have much to do with this effort. We also know that appropriately compensating our staff is an important overarching factor in perpetuating our reputation as an employer of choice. The staff market salary equity program and accompanying compensation campus practices for non-represented staff help us to work towards this goal.
We are working on finalizing a compensation philosophy that will serve as a reference point in designing, delivering, and administering cash compensation programs in relation to other programs to ensure the University fulfills its commitment to employees and obligation to the public at large for non-represented staff. Our philosophy will include the following, among other principles:
- Align our jobs to the market based on their assigned responsibilities, taking into account job scope, accountabilities and value to the University.
- Build compensation practices that consistently support the judicious expenditure of funds entrusted to the University.
- Align our compensation with leading academic research institutions (public and private) as well as national, regional, and local organizations with whom the University competes for talent.
In a continued effort to work towards these principles and the forthcoming compensation philosophy, we are investing $352,320 in an equity program covering approximately 98 non-represented staff.
Key aspects of the program include:
- Targeting employees whose salaries are the lowest market compa-ratios. Not everyone will receive an adjustment and increases will vary according to each participant’s individual pay circumstances.
- Aligning salaries more closely to market salary data. Thereby, making our employees’ salaries more competitive compared to the market and create incentive for our staff to continue their careers at UC Merced.
To be eligible for the program an employee must:
- Be non-represented, policy covered MSP or PSS staff.
- Be in a staff career appointment.
- Have been employed at UC Merced for at least 12 consecutive months and be non-probationary from the effective date of the program.
- Have a “successfully met expectations (3)” or better rating in the last fiscal year performance review.
- Have not had a reclassification or equity adjustment effective January 1st, 2022 or later.
The equity adjustments will be effective:
- April 3rd, 2022, for bi-weekly staff, which will be reflected on their April 27th, 2022 check.
- April 1st, 2022, for monthly staff, which will be reflected on their April 29th, 2022 check.
Our staff HR compensation team will provide the divisions with a roster of eligible employees.
Lastly, an Equity Program Local Implementation Procedure will be forthcoming and will provide an ongoing formal mechanism for addressing salary inequities related to changing external market conditions, internal salary equity, salary compression issues, significant permanent changes in assigned scope and complexity of work that does not warrant a reclassification, and retention considerations.
Please refer to the FAQ for more information about market equity and this year’s program or contact Marcia Patino at mpatino3@ucmerced.edu or email comp@ucmerced.edu.
