Effective July 1, 2005, pay grade changes will be in place for NAU’s classified staff positions as a result of the “re-grade” project conducted by Human Resources. President Haeger fully supports this study and has allocated $230,000 to fund the necessary salary adjustments that will assure all classified staff salaries fit within the newly assigned pay grade salary ranges.
The objective of this re-grading process is to have the salary range for every classified staff position title align with the average salary rates paid by other organizations having similar jobs. This average salary rate is commonly referred to as the “market rate” and is determined through annual salary surveys. The market rate generally includes averages for the lowest and highest salaries paid.
The definitions and process descriptions below will assist you in understanding the outcome of this project. In addition, an
information session will be held Wednesday, July 6, 2005 from 2:00 - 3:00 pm in Social and Behavioral Sciences (Bldg. 65) room 102.
Salary Range
Every classified staff position title has a grade assigned to it, and for every grade there is a salary range having a minimum, a midpoint, and a maximum salary rate. The midpoint is key because it is the link for comparing NAU’s plan to the external market rates for classified staff job titles.
Re-grade Process
The re-grade process simply assigns a new grade to each position title so that the
midpoint of the range now matches as close as possible the
market rate. Of the 283 classified staff job titles, 277 will have new grades as of July 1, 2005. For instance, the “Library Specialist” position was a grade 22 with a midpoint of $26,040, but due to the market information the new grade will be 32 and have a midpoint of $33,106. Refer to the
Classified Staff Job Titles With New Grades table for all the grades and salary ranges.
Bring to Minimum Increases
Because higher grades have been assigned to the 277 positions, the salary range minimums also move up. In the example above, the minimum salary was $20,824, but will now be $26,851. Since NAU policy states that no classified staff employee will be paid below their job’s salary range minimum, those employees in pay grade 32 with salaries below the new $26,851 will receive pay adjustments to bring them up to the new minimum. University-wide, approximately 150 employees are affected and will receive this increase. The remaining employees have current base salaries that fall within their new ranges (above the minimum) and will not get an increase.
Equity Adjustments
As a result of the “bring to minimum” increases, isolated salary compression issues arose that resulted in pay equity concerns in a few work units In the most significant cases, “equity” salary adjustments will be provided and will be effective July 1, 2005. Fewer than 30 employees are eligible for these special increases.
