Northern Arizona University

 

Northern Arizona University President John Haeger has approved a compensation plan for fiscal year 2006 that will award the majority of faculty, academic professionals, administrators, classified staff and service professionals an average salary increase of about 4 percent.

 

The 4 percent average increase includes the 1.7 percent general salary adjustment earmarked in the 2005-06 state budget. Additionally, merit and market increases would apply to employees based on performance rating and, where applicable, distance from market.

 

The compensation plan goes into effect July 2, and the full increases will be reflected in the July 22 paycheck.

 

“NAU is committing more than $2 million of its budget in salaries for our faculty and staff, in addition to the $1.9 million provided by the state,” Haeger said.  “As I have said repeatedly, compensation is our No. 1 priority at NAU. Through intensive budget management, we’ve been able to set aside the funds necessary to make significant strides in our multi-year effort to improve salaries.

 

“But compensation isn’t just about salaries,” noted Haeger. “It also includes health and retirement benefits, and once again, NAU is able to mitigate these ever-increasing costs for our faculty and staff and their families.”

 

Employees enrolled in the Blue Cross/Blue Shield health plan will pay another $5 per month for single or family coverage, beginning Oct. 1. The only change to the current BCBS health plan is an increase in the employee copayment for seeing a specialist, which will go up from $15 to $25. NAU covers 90 percent of the cost of BCBS health benefits for family coverage. In dollars, that means that NAU pays $1,080.14 of the $1,200.14 total monthly premium for family coverage.

 

There are no expected health cost increases for the 1 percent of employees who are on a health plan other than BCBS.

 

The contribution rate to the Arizona State Retirement System for both employee and employer is going up this year. The employee rate will increase from 5.2 percent to 6.9 percent. That 1.7 percentage point increase is covered by the general salary adjustment provided in the state budget.

 

The majority of the salary increases for faculty and academic professionals will be funded by the 1.7 percent general salary adjustment from the state and merit. In addition, about 25 percent of these employees also will receive market adjustments, effective July 2.

 

The market adjustments are based on a study completed this year to assess faculty salaries using a standard data set from the College and University Professional Association, which conducts compensation surveys nationwide. Faculty positions were compared, by discipline and rank, to the average salaries of similar CUPA institutions. The objective was to bring tenure-track and academic professional salaries to 85 percent of the CUPA average. The target for non-tenure-track faculty was 82 percent of the CUPA average.

 

This past year, the university also completed a comprehensive market salary review of classified staff job classifications and re-graded 277 positions upwards to reflect market rates. As a result, the university has allocated about $230,000 in 2005-06 for the re-grade effort. These salary adjustments will be effective July 1.

 

NAU’s Department of Human Resources will conduct a similar compensation assessment of service professional positions in 2005-06.

 

Director of Human Resources Diane Verkest noted that aside from the classified staff re-grade project, the university processed more than $700,000 in individual equity adjustments and job reclassifications for about 260 classified staff and service professionals in 2004-05.

 

In addition to the faculty and staff compensation, the university will provide NAU graduate assistants a 1.7 percent salary increase, effective July 2.

 

Salary notices will be sent to all employees who are receiving an increase the week of July 18-22.

 

President Haeger also will discuss NAU’s compensation plan and the use of CUPA data in greater detail at a September address to campus.

 

Details on the general salary adjustment and merit increases for classified staff and service professionals can be found at http://hr.nau.edu. The web site also includes information on the classified staff re-grade project.