FY 2023-24 COLA, Merit Plan FAQs

Eligible staff making $50,000 or less will receive a $2,500* cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). Eligible staff earning more than $50,000 per year will receive a COLA of 5%.

Eligible faculty members will receive a 2% COLA.

*Note: Eligible part-time employees in FTE, TLP, and TGP positions who earn an annualized salary of more than $50,000 will receive a 5% increase. Eligible part-time employees in FTE, TLP, and TGP positions who earn an annualized salary less than $50,000 will receive a prorated amount of the increase.

Example 1:

• 0.5 FTE whose salary is $28,000 = $56,000 annualized salary
• $28,000 x 5% = $1,400 general increase
• $28,000 + $1,400 = $29,400 new salary

Example 2:

• 0.5 FTE whose salary is $20,000 = $40,000 annualized salary
• 0.5 FTE x $2,500 = $1,250 general increase
• $20,000 salary + $1,250 = $21,250 new salary

Classified and unclassified staff positions, with an effective date of hire, or an official first day of employment, on or before June 15, 2023, in:

• Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) positions
• Time-Limited Positions (TLP) who have standard hours of 30 or more hours, contract permitting
• Temporary Grant Positions (TGP) who have standard hours of 30 or more hours, grant permitting

Faculty members with an effective date of hire, or an official first day of employment, on or before June 15, 2023, in:

• Full-time Equivalent (FTE) positions who have standard hours of 30 hours or more
• Time-Limited Positions (TLP) who have standard hours of 30 hours or more (contract permitting)
• Temporary Grant Positions (TGP) who have standard hours of 30 hours or more (grant permitting)

• Employees hired after June 15, or whose last day of employment was on or after June 16, 2023
• 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

***Note: Some temporary positions will see an increase in their salary or hourly rate if their current rate falls out of a new state pay band range.

Employees must have an effective date of hire, or an official first day of employment, of June 15, 2023 or earlier to be eligible for the cost-of-living adjustment or potential merit-informed increase.

Eligible staff members will see this increase beginning with their July 14, 2023, paycheck.

Faculty members will receive their COLA increase when merit-informed increases are processed. Eligible faculty will receive their COLA increase with their potential merit-informed increase in their September 29, 2023, paycheck.

State pay bands will increase by 5% (the same percentage as the COLA), except for the bottom of Band 1, which will remain equal to minimum wage.

If you receive supplemental pay in addition to your base salary, the supplemental pay is not always eligible for the increase. Supplements based on a whole dollar amount rather than a percentage of base salary are not eligible. In such cases, your pay history will show less than a 5 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

***Note: Employees making $50,000 or less will receive an increase of $2,500, resulting in a COLA percentage greater than 5%.

Supplemental pay such as temporary or administrative salary adjustments are not included in base pay to calculate the general increase. However, for staff who receive the general increase to their base salary and have a supplement based on a percentage of their base salary, their supplemental pay will increase based on the increase to their base salary.

To be eligible for a COLA or merit-informed increase, an employee’s single position must have 30 hours or more.

Ask-HR or contact the HR Service Center.

Faculty members with an effective date of hire, or an official first day of employment, on or before June 15, 2023, in:

• Full-time Equivalent (FTE) positions who have standard hours of 30 or more
• Time-Limited Positions (TLP) who have standard hours of 30 or more (contract permitting)
• Temporary Grant Positions (TGP) who have standard hours of 30 or more (grant permitting)

Merit-informed increase decisions take into account employee performance. This factors in achievements based on the criteria established by your department’s or school’s merit matrices. The state regulations allow for the COLA to be administered without uniformity for unclassified positions, meaning some faculty members may receive more or less than a three percent merit-informed increase, or no merit-informed increase at all.

The increases will be made retroactive to June 16, 2023, for 12-month faculty and August 15, 2023, for 9-month faculty.

Eligible faculty who receive a merit-informed increase will receive a communication from the Office of Human Resources by September 25, 2023.

Eligible faculty who receive a merit-informed increase will see the increase in their September 29, 2023 paycheck.

The increase will appear in the September 29, 2023, check and will be retroactive to June 16, 2023, for eligible 12-month faculty members and to August 15, 2023, for eligible 9-month faculty members.

Yes. The Office of Human Resources is working closely with the Budget Officers and Senior leadership and providing training and resources for the Department users to assign the appropriate increase.

Yes. The Office of Human Resources will communicate with faculty receiving the Merit-informed increase.

As an R1 institution, the university recognizes the importance of incorporating individual performance, especially among faculty members, in addressing compensation. It is for this reason that the departmental Merit Matrices were developed. In keeping with this performance-based methodology, 3% of the COLA funds for Faculty members will be rolled into the performance-Based Salary Increase Plan. The state guidance provided institutions of higher education the flexibility to implement the cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) without uniformity in regard to unclassified positions.

Yes. Faculty members promoted through the annual tenure and promotion process with an effective increase date of July 1 or August 15 will receive their increase when merit increases are processed in the September 29 paycheck. Per state regulations, when general increases (including merit) and other salary increases (promotions, etc.) are awarded on the same effective date, the general increase will be applied prior to any other salary increases.