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General Increase Plan
Fiscal Year 2026-2027 Plan
In accordance with the state of South Carolina’s Fiscal Year 2026-27 General Appropriation Act, Clemson University will provide a base salary increase to eligible staff and faculty members.
What is a General Increase?
During the annual state budgeting process, the South Carolina state legislature may choose to allocate funds for a general increase in eligible state employees’ salaries.
In accordance with the state’s Fiscal Year 2026-2027 General Appropriation Act, the state has allocated a base salary increase of two percent for all classified state employees. Clemson University will extend eligibility to include all faculty and staff (regardless of classification) who meet the criteria listed below.
Eligibility Details
Faculty and staff members with an effective date of hire or an official first day of employment on or before June 15, 2026, in the following positions are eligible for a general increase:
- Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) positions, regardless of standard hours
- Time-Limited Positions (TLP) who have standard hours of 30 or more hours, contract permitting and if source funds are available
- Temporary Grant Positions (TGP) who have standard hours of 30 or more hours, grant permitting and if source funds are available
Faculty and staff members who meet the following criteria are not eligible for a general increase:
- Employees hired after June 15, 2026, or whose last day of employment was on or before August 15, 2026
- Employees in Temporary Positions (TMP)
- Employees in Time-Limited (TLP) or Temporary Grant Positions (TGP) who have standard hours of less than 30 hours
- Student-workers (graduate and undergraduate)
- Employees paid by lump sum only, without a set hourly rate/annual salary (formerly referred to as Intermittent)
- Any employment category that is explicitly excluded from the state guidance (i.e., agency head)
- Judicial employees
- Employees with employment contracts
Timeline
For eligible 12-month employees: The increase is effective June 16, 2026.
Due to the timing of the adoption of the General Appropriation Act, the increase will appear on the August 31, 2026, paycheck, with a retroactive payment that reflects the increase amount due for the July 15, July 30 and August 15 paychecks.
For eligible 9-month employees: The increase is effective August 15, 2026, and will appear in the August 31, 2026, paycheck.
Per state regulations, when general increases and other salary increases* (e.g. the annual tenure and promotion process) are awarded on the same effective date, the general increase will be applied prior to any other salary increases.
Other Frequently Asked Questions
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How do general increases impact supplemental pay?
General increases are applied to an employee’s base salary, which does not include supplemental pay such as temporary or administrative salary adjustments. However, employees who receive a supplement based on a percentage of their base salary will see an increase in their supplemental pay, due to the increased base salary.
Supplements based on a whole dollar amount will not be impacted. In such cases, your pay history will show less than a 2 percent increase. Pay history increases (in percentage) are based on the following equation:
Percent increase = (Total increase in dollars / (Current compensation in dollars, including base salary + supplements)) x 100
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How does the general increase impact visibility of faculty promotions?
*For faculty members receiving promotions through the tenure and promotion process:
Typically, this timing does not impact this process, as the general increase is inputted several months before faculty rank promotions are effective.
Due to the delayed state budget cycle, the general increase will not be entered in Workday until after August 15, meaning faculty rank promotions cannot be entered by August 15.
The Office of Human Resources expects to have all faculty rank promotions inputted into the system by August 20, at which time, the system will be updated to reflect the promotion.
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Were there changes to the state pay bands?
State pay bands will increase by two percent (the same percentage as the general increase), except for the bottom of Band 1, which will remain equal to minimum wage.
