Merit Based Compensation
The FY 2018 budget includes ~$2 million (2% of the total salary budget) for sustainable merit increases. Merit is intended to reward performance and should not be allocated across the board. A merit increase is an increase to recognize meritorious job performance but is not associated with a promotion or a change in job title resulting from a significant change in job duties.
Each department head/unit leader awarding merit should follow directions provided by their respective Vice President for the routing and approval of merit recommendations prior to submitting these recommendations to the Budget Office. The effective date of eligible merit increases will be September 1, 2018. The monthly merit increase amount will be reflected on the October 1, 2018 paycheck.
Staff
After completion of 2017-2018 performance evaluations, all eligible non-exempt and exempt staff employees receiving a “highly effective” or “exceptional” rating will receive a 1 % merit increase. All eligible non-exempt and exempt staff employees receiving a “Proficient” rating will receive a .5% merit increase.
After merit increases are applied to base non-exempt and exempt staff salaries, Vice Presidents will be provided with the remaining available merit allocations (2% of the total salary budgets less the amounts awarded with the 1%, .5% merit increases and the minimum increases of $500 described below) to be awarded to non-exempt and exempt staff employees as additional discretionary merit pay based on performance. Discretionary merit pay amounts to vary by individual from 0-7%. Vice Presidents will be responsible for providing allocations to their department heads/unit leaders.
After merit increases are finalized, a review of eligible employees in full-time positions with base salaries less than $25,000 (prorated for employees in regular part-time positions) will be conducted to ensure these employees receive a minimum of $500.
Staff Merit Eligibility
- Staff employees must have demonstrated meritorious performance as documented on a current performance evaluation with a “Proficient” or higher overall rating that has been conducted in accordance with university policies.
- Staff employees must be employed in a regular full-time or regular part-time position to be eligible for merit.
- Student employees, graduate assistants and other employees in a temporary position are ineligible to participate in merit.
- Staff employees must have been employed in a regular full-time or part-time position prior to January 1, 2018 to be eligible for merit.
- Staff employees in a reclassified or promoted position that resulted in a salary increase prior to January 1, 2018 are eligible for merit.
- Staff employees in a reclassified or promoted position that resulted in a salary increase on or after January 1, 2018 are ineligible for merit. However, if the promotion or reclassification salary increase is lower than the merit increase that would be received, the employee will receive the greater of the merit increase or the promotion or reclassification salary increase, but not both.
- Staff employees serving in an “interim” capacity are eligible for a merit increase based on their salary prior to their interim appointment.
- Staff employees must be employed on the effective date of the merit increase, September 1, 2018, to be eligible for merit and must be employed on the date of the first paycheck, October 1, 2018, to receive the monthly merit increase amount.
Faculty
Merit pay for each faculty member will be determined as the sum of the following components:
A. Rating-based merit pay (using most recent Periodic Performance Review - PPR) Effective or Exceptional* 1.0% of current salary
Needs Improvement 0.5%
Ineffective Performance 0.0%
* The following situations are equivalent to a rating of Effective or Exceptional in determining rating-based
merit pay:
1. A rating of Outstanding, Excellent, or Meets Minimal Standards on the most recent annual performance review or post-tenure review if that review occurred priot to 2017-2018; or
2. A positive result from a promotion and/or tenure review in 2016-17 or 2017-18.
B. Discretionary Merit Pay (amounts to vary by individual from 0-7%)
In addition to the amounts generated by application of the ratings-based percentages, each Dean may allocate additional amounts of merit pay to individual faculty members based on her/his accomplishments in the domains of Teaching, Scholarship, and Service (including Administration, as appropriate). Deans will use the information provided in the most recent PPR and associated CV.
Regardless of when the last performance review was completed, faculty members wishing to specifically identify exceptional accomplishments between September 1, 2016 and August 31, 2017 that should be considered by the Dean when determining Discretionary Merit pay allocations, may document accomplishments and send to the applicable email address below:
COPEmerit@twu.edu College of Professional Education
CHSmerit@twu.edu College of Health Sciences
CASmerit@twu.edu College of Arts and Sciences
CONmerit@twu.edu College of Nursing
COBmerit@twu.edu College of Business
The email accounts designated above are separate from the Deans’ regular email accounts and accessible to only her/his office.
The email should succinctly list (bullet points are acceptable) or describe the accomplishments in relation to the Teaching, Scholarship, and/or Service sections of the applicable University and academic component criteria. Faculty may include a short statement explaining why they believe these accomplishments are deserving of Discretionary Merit pay. In no event should the message exceed one page in length. The email should use the following subject line: Merit—Name-- Academic Component. The deadline for receiving the emails is June 15, 2018.
Faculty Merit Eligibility
- Faculty must be employed in a regular full-time or regular part-time position to be eligible for merit.
- Faculty must have been employed in a regular full-time or part-time position prior to January 1, 2018 to be eligible for merit.
- Faculty serving in an “interim” capacity are eligible for a merit increase based on their salary prior to their interim appointment.
- Faculty must be employed on the effective date of the merit increase, September 1, 2018, to be eligible for merit and must be employed on the date of the first paycheck, October 1, 2018, to receive the monthly merit increase amount.
FY 2018 Merit Based Compensation