Clerical and Support Salary Equity Plan

Clerical and Support Staff Salary Equity Committee

Final Report

July 5, 2001

General Observations

1. The existence of an equity plan does not guarantee that adequate funding will be available to fully implement it. An equity model can identify target salaries as goals.

2. The objective for an equity model is to develop (1) a way to identify employees who are underpaid, and (2) a means to address the problem when and if funds are made available. Once the equity model is adopted, employees would know their target salaries. In general, when funds become available, employees farthest away from their target salaries would receive more equity funds than those close to their target salary.

Recommendations

1. The first priority should be to implement a plan to address equity issues relative to current employees, especially those who have many years vs. new hires.

2. Since pay ranges can be adjusted upward as approved by the TBR, target salaries identified through the Clerical/Support Equity Plan should be determined by an equity formula that automatically moves if the pay ranges are adjusted.

3. Once significant progress has been made in the implementation of the Clerical and Support Staff Salary Equity Plan, issues relative to hiring at the start-step, as well as adjusting the start-step ranges, should be revisited by the committee.

4. The relatively low pay ranges recommended by TTU and approved by TBR are not noted. The skill levels/pay ranges in place at TTU should be studied and compared to relative labor market salary data at least once every two years for possible recommended adjustments by TBR. Such a study would not have to be completed prior to the activation of the initial Clerical and Support Salary Equity Plan.

5. The inequity of repetitive across-the-board raises is noted. Such raises increase the disparity between higher paid employees compared to lower paid employees. Across the board raises also do not encourage employees to improve their job performance.

Factors of the Plan

1. The determining factors in the salary equity plan should be as follows: (1) the skill level of the employee, (2) the years of local experience (at TTU) in the relevant job family, and (3) a merit component in the form of a normalized performance evaluation score (see item 3 below).

2. The Clerical and Support Salary Equity Plan provides salary increases according to a polynomial equation over 30 years, with the largest increases in the early years, allowing the employees to reach maximum pay in their range after working here 30 years. (See attached graphs and charts.) Under this plan, C & S, employees would reach the mid-points in their pay ranges in less than nine years (eight years and nine months), as opposed to 15 years that it takes on average for C & S employees to reach their midpoints at the present time.

3. The same merit component in the TTU Administrative Equity Salary Plan is used in the C & S Salary Equity Plan, with the substitution of $1,000 per z score in the C & S Salary Equity Plan in place of $2,000 listed in the Administrative Plan. Generic evaluation forms used at TTU do not allow for the evaluation of specific job responsibilities, and the forms are not based on the Universities Mission Statement. With these two observations in mind, valuing each z score at $2,000 as is currently done in the Administrative Plan would put to much "weight" on the evaluation of Clerical and Support Staff.

The Clerical and Support Salary Equity Plan identifies the most recent five-year average of the employee’s annual performance evaluation score. Using a mathematical formula, the scores are normalized to remove the effects of evaluator variances. Based on the results of this mathematical formula, the target salary determined by the experience factor would be adjusted up or down.

4. Salary adjustments based on passing the CPS exam are not part of the Clerical and Support Salary Equity Plan. The State Legislature currently mandates a nine percent raise for employees if they voluntarily take and pass the Certified Professional Secretaries exam. Subsequent across-the-board raises would be higher for those persons since their base salaries had been raised. To further increase salaries of those who passed the CPS by building a CPS factor into the equity plan would reward them again for passing the voluntary test. There are Support Staff employees who must pass certifications in order to be hired and others who choose to be certified in their areas of expertise while they are employed at TTU. The State Legislature has not mandated raises for them and they are not rewarded for their efforts. Therefore, in fairness to all of the employees who pass certifications in their positions, the CPS exam should not be singled out as a factor calling for additional salary equity money.

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Plan approved by TBR on December 7, 2001

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Last Updated: September 16, 2003
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