As announced in the September 14, 2021 message from Chancellor Cynthia Larive and Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer, UC Santa Cruz is investing $5.5 million over three years (2021/22, 2022/23, and 2023/24) in a salary equity program for our non-represented staff. We have been working on the implementation of the third year of the program. The details of the program have been updated for this year; the eligibility criteria remains the same as our first and second year implementation. The effective date for biweekly paid employees is December 24, 2023 and the effective date for monthly paid employees is January 1, 2024. The following outlines the details of the program and the changes to this year’s model.
Program Overview and Objectives
The non-represented staff salary equity program will augment other campus salary programs such as annual increases and other equity adjustments. The purpose of this program is to bring employee salaries closer to the market (50th percentile of salary range) over a three-year timeline.
In all three years, the program prioritizes employees who are furthest below the midpoint of their respective Career Tracks salary ranges. Equity amounts for eligible employees will vary depending on individual pay circumstances.
The two main factors for consideration are an employee’s penetration in their respective Career Tracks salary range and the number of years in their current classification. Salary range penetration is a point between 0% and 100% indicating specifically where an employee’s salary falls within their salary range. Due to differences across employees in these two factors, not all employees will receive the same equity increase, and not every employee will receive an increase. This year, the model measures the same criteria, but shifts from providing percentage increases to providing fixed dollar increases. The model will derive the same dollar increase, rather than percentage increase, for employees who fall within the same prioritization group.
In our third year, every non-represented staff member below the 75th percentile in pay grades 15 - 25 is eligible for salary adjustment consideration.The six highest salary grades (26-31) are only eligible for the program if they are below the 25th percentile.
Salary increases will range from 0.01% to 4.25% of annual pay with the average around 1.22%. About 84% of the non-represented staff will receive an equity adjustment in the third year of the program. Based on program parameters, 60% of the funds will be distributed to employees at or below the 25th percentile and 35% of the funds will be distributed to employees at or above the 25th percentile and below the 50th percentile. Approximately 97% of the $1.5 million will be distributed to employees in grades 15 through 25, approximately 3% of the funds will be distributed to the employees in grades 26 through 31 who are below the 25th percentile.
Eligibility criteria:
- Non-represented career, partial-year career and contract employees
- Employees who have a “Met Expectations” performance rating or above for 2022/23 (if an evaluation was not completed, “Met Expectations” is assumed)
- Employees hired before November 1, 2023
Combined with the traditional merit or general increase and traditional equities, this special program is designed to accelerate our progress towards a market-based compensation environment.
Eligible employees will be informed of their increases starting the week January 8, 2024.
Please contact compensation@ucsc.edu with any questions.
