Policy: Policy 4-5-2-3: Administrative Faculty Merit Policy Date Adopted: May 17, 2005
Department: Human Resources Contact: Human Resources
Statement: This policy applies to all administrative faculty, except the President, as defined by the Board of Regents Handbook, Title 4, Chapter 3, Section 2.

Section 1: Policy


  1. Administrative faculty merit is determined through the following process:
    1. Merit adjustments are based on the results of the employee's Annual Evaluation. 
    2. To be considered for merit adjustment, a professional staff member must have an evalutation rating of Commendable or Excellent for the evaluation period immediately preceding the effective datee of the merit increase, and must not been given notice of termination or non-reappointment. Exceptions require the approval of the President.
    3. Merit awards will not be made to professional staff members who were promoted from classified to professional ad received a merit increase as a classified employee during the academic year covered by the evaluation rating period. Exceptions require the approval of the President.
    4. The pool for merit awards will be set when and if funded and according to guidance from the Board of Regents, the Chancellor or the System.

Section 2: Calculation of Merit Pool and Increases

  1. The following assumes an annual merit pool of k% of total salaries. See calculation example spreadsheet below.
        1. Ratings and Initial Merit
          1. Ratings of Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory earn no merit increase
          2. The percent increase for Commendable is 80% of that for Excellent
        2. Formulas for percent increase:
          1. Percent increase for Excellent:
            k% of total salaries / [(sum of excellent salaries) + .8*(sum of commendable salaries)]
          2. Percent increase for Commendable:
            .8*(Percent Excellent calculation listed in item a)
        3. Important consequences of this model:
          1. 100% of the merit pool is distributed (unless all ratings are satisfactory or lower)
          2. The percentage increase for a rating of excellent is always higher than that of commendable
          3. Percentage increase is the same for all employees who earn a particular rating regardless of salary or grade
          4. If all ratings are excellent, each merit increase is exactly k%
          5. If all ratings are commendable, each merit increase is exactly k%

Section 3: Calculation Example


  1. Calculation Example

Date(s) Revised December 8, 2023; March 13, 2014; September 2, 2008; October 5, 2006; Jan 18, 2022; Date(s) Reviewed