The staff and faculty of UC Santa Cruz play a vital role in furthering our mission and goals, supporting our students and preparing them to succeed in their chosen fields. Each day, your commitment to our campus strengthens our progress toward building an inclusive university centered on student-centered learning, world-class research and creative scholarship and service.
We are pleased to share the news from the UC Office of the President that for the second year in a row, all eligible policy-covered staff employees, senate faculty and policy-covered academic appointees will receive a salary increase, pending approval of the state budget and the University of California receiving its full state funding. The University of California anticipates eligible employees could receive an increase of up to 4.6 percent.
If approved by the state legislature, the increase to the base salary of eligible staff employees will be effective July 1, 2023, for monthly paid employees and June 25, 2023, for bi-weekly paid employees. Monthly employees should see the increase on their August 1, 2023 paycheck, and bi-weekly employees should see the increase on their July 19, 2023 paycheck.
For senate faculty and academic appointees, the increase is a general range adjustment and will be effective October 1, 2023, for policy-covered faculty and July 1, 2023, for other policy-covered academic appointees. The regular peer-review merit advancement process for policy-covered academic appointees will continue per academic personnel policy.
The wages for staff employees and academic appointees represented by unions are governed by collective bargaining agreements and not included in this program.
While the UC Office of the President does not anticipate a change, in the event the current budget expectations are altered, UC President Michael Drake will provide an updated announcement at that time.
We are pleased that the contributions of our staff and faculty members to UC Santa Cruz and beyond are being acknowledged by the University of California. More details regarding eligibility and any updates to pay dates will be communicated as details become available.
Staff equity program update
In fall 2021, we launched the Staff Equity Program. The three-year effort is designed to increase our actual pay levels and targets employees in lower salary grades whose salaries are furthest below market. The goal of the $5.5 million program is to make our pay practices more competitive and provide an incentive for staff to continue their careers at UC Santa Cruz.
During the program's first year, the salaries of more than 1,300 policy-covered employees were increased. Seventy-one percent of the increases went to employees at or below the 25th percentile. Salary increases ranged from less than 1 percent to 6 percent, with an average increase of 2.46 percent, translating to an average annual salary increase of $1,841.
In the program’s second year, 49 percent of the $1.5 million in salary increases went to employees earning at or below the 25th percentile and 42 percent went to employees earning above the 25th percentile and below the 42nd percentile. Approximately 95% of the $1.5 million was distributed to employees in grades 15 through 25. Details on salary increases in the third year will be shared in the 2023-24 academic year.
The overall impact of the program, along with the general increases and individual equity increases provided by departments, has shifted our salary distribution closer to an ideal distribution that aligns salaries at UC Santa Cruz with the labor market (50th percentile).
We are grateful for all you do.
