Statement on Raises and Additional Compensation

Washington University closely monitors and evaluates the dispensation of raises, merit increases, bonuses, and additional compensation to all its employees; employees paid from grants or other outside funds are no exception. The raise guidelines Human Resources provides every year must be considered, regardless of sourcing.*  Arts & Sciences and Washington University have a responsibility to ensure that all its employees are reasonably and consistently compensated, and we likewise have a duty to outside granting agencies to assure them that we oversee the equitable, responsible, and reasonable distribution of their funds through our payroll system.

 

For example, the NIH Gran­ts Policy Statement states: “Compensation costs are allowable to the extent that they are reasonable [and] conform to the established policy of the organization (i.e. Washington University) consistently applied regardless of the source of funds…” Bearing this in mind, please consider the following:

Frequency of salary increases:  Arts & Sciences recognizes that an employee who performs his or her job well may receive a merit increase on an annual basis. The effective date of this increase should be either on the start of the new fiscal year (July 1st) or on the anniversary of the person’s employment.

Occasionally a supervisor will request that an employee receive a second increase within the same year. Arts & Sciences discourages this practice, and any such raise needs to be submitted in writing to dean’s office, including requests for probationary increases.

Raises in excess of the HR recommended maximum within a given FY:  Any request for an increase in excess of the recommended maximum in any given year should be submitted in writing to the dean’s office (which can be done as part of the annual departmental budget process). Human Resources will provide annual guidelines for bestowing raises based upon employee performance and review. The scale establishes an overall budgetary goal for the department, school, and university (e.g. 3.25%) along with graduated levels from a minimum to a maximum (e.g. 0% to 5.5%). The result should be a total salary increase for all employees in a given office, program, or department that does not exceed the budgetary goal.

Bonuses and additional payments:  All bonus requests route through the Office of Human Resources for approval, which still require the approval of the dean’s office. Likewise, all other additional payments require the approval of the dean’s office and must comply with our standards for reasonable and appropriate remuneration.

posted 8 Feb. 2006


* In exceptional cases the Dean will consider requests for pay raises in individual circumstances of promotion, or with suitable documentation of a previous commitment or need.