Please note the responses below pertain to staff compensation only. For information on faculty compensation, please contact the Provost’s Office.
Pay Grades
Salaries are determined by considering a number of factors, including but not limited to the education, experience, complexity of skills, supervisory responsibilities, and the organizational impact of that role within the College. A position’s pay grade and salary range are determined in the context of these factors.
The College of Wooster has many staff positions that require a wide range of skills and responsibilities. We use a typical evaluation system to analyze positions and to organize them into classifications. Positions are evaluated considering several factors that may be required for success, including but not limited to education, experience, complexity of skills, supervisory responsibilities, and organizational impact at the College. In the context of these factors, positions classified similarly are then grouped together into a pay grade.
Our position classification system helps establish consistency and fairness when compensating widely varying positions. Since the College has some unique positions not readily found in the labor market, our system also helps place those positions in context and determine appropriate compensation.
A pay grade is the range of pay determined as appropriate compensation for staff positions that have been grouped together due to a similar classification. Specific salary ranges within each staff pay grade are determined by the market rates for the positions that fall within the pay grade. The College reviews higher education and other local and national salary data to adjust staff pay grades as needed to offer competitive compensation.
While various staff positions are grouped together in a pay grade, each individual position has a unique salary range that falls within—but may not be as large as—the full pay grade range. In other words, because the salary range for an individual position is aligned with the market pay range for that type of role, it may represent a smaller range than the pay grade the position falls within.
There is no guarantee that grade ranges will change from year to year, but they are updated regularly, depending on factors like the market change for positions and inflation.
When there is a notable change in the responsibilities within a position, a supervisor may request a review of that position. If this review determines that the position has significantly changed in terms of the required responsibilities, knowledge, skills, and decision-making complexity, it may be reclassified. A reclassification may lead to a salary adjustment, whether the position is placed within a higher grade or maintained within the same grade. Determinations of a position’s classification also consider other factors, including internal equity position comparisons and external market data.
There are, on occasion, circumstances in which a reclassification may not lead to a salary increase, such as when a staff member’s salary is already above the marketplace for their position. In limited circumstances, a position reclassification may also lead to the position being placed in a lower salary grade. This may occur because of a wider reorganization of a department, or because of a college-wide reorganization. In the event of a staff position being reclassified into a lower grade, the determination of an appropriate salary will be resolved on a case-by-case basis. A revised job description is required that clearly indicates new duties.
If a staff member voluntarily transfers to a vacant position classified within a lower pay grade, that may result in a lesser salary. In such situations, the determination of an appropriate salary will be resolved on a case-by-case basis.
To remain current with the labor market, the College participates in numerous market salary surveys that gather data from both within and outside higher education. Higher education surveys include CUPA (College University Professional Association), which has data on 1,400 participating institutions and over three hundred positions. Local and national surveys outside of higher education include EduComp, Economic Research Institute, Kenexa, and Sullivan-Cotter. These surveys present an informed picture of broader labor markets for staff positions and allow the College to continue providing a competitive rate of pay.
Pay Grade Maximums
As compensation for long-time staff members continues to grow, it may eventually reach the pay grade maximum for their position. Even after the pay grade maximum has been reached, staff members remain eligible for pay increases.
However, in these cases staff members can receive their increase in a lump sum payment at the start of the fiscal year.
Exempt and Non-Exempt Positions
Employees in exempt positions are salaried and not eligible to receive overtime pay. Staff members in non-exempt positions are compensated on an hourly basis for their work and are therefore eligible to receive overtime pay.
A non-exempt employee who works more than 8 hours in a workday or 40 hours in a work week must be paid one and one-half times his/her regular rate of pay for all overtime hours worked. Employees should accurately record actual hours worked, including overtime hours. The College require prior approval to work overtime, employees should always check with their supervisor before working overtime hours.
One option is Make-Up Time: This is a provision that allows an employee to request time off for a personal obligation and make up the time without receiving overtime pay under the following circumstances:
– It is requested by the employee for the employee’s personal convenience, not the employers.
– The employee may work no more than 11 hours on another day and no more than 40 hours in the work week, to make up the time off.
– The time must be made up within the same workweek (Sunday through Saturday).
– The employee must submit a signed written request in advance. See the Makeup Time Request
Administrators, or exempt employees, are exempt from the overtime and recordkeeping regulations of state and federal wage and hour law. As such, they have more flexibility than non-exempt employees to vary their schedules according to business needs. However, exempt employees are also expected to work the number of hours it takes to get the job done and should not be tracking their hours worked/time off on a formal hour-for-hour or day-for-day basis. To do so will put the employee’s exempt status in jeopardy.
When positions are reclassified to a higher grade, the incumbent’s pay rate is increased to at least the minimum of the new pay grade. Additional rate increases are considered based on funding availability and the incumbent’s current pay rate. The department budget must support the rate increase. The department determines when the new rate will be effective, which is no sooner than the beginning of the next pay period following the re-classification.
The process is to classify the position first, then submit it for budget approval. Hiring supervisors are encouraged to use Human Resources as a tool to assist them with developing the job description and determining the appropriate salary and title for new position. This way, when the new position is submitted for budget approval, the hiring supervisor can be confident that the requested salary will be adequate and equitable. Because budgets are developed so far in advance, this requires planning on the part of hiring departments, who should be contacting Human Resources early in the process as they are developing new positions.
It is college policy that all casual/temporary/non-benefit-based employees work less than 20 hours per week or less than one thousand hours per calendar year. It is the responsibility of the hiring supervisor to monitor these employees’ work hours to ensure that employees work less than the maximum one thousand hours each calendar year. For employees with multiple assignments, the supervisors must communicate with each other to monitor total hours worked.
Once the one thousand hours is reached in the calendar year, supervisors will need to reduce the employee’s scheduled hours per week or end their temporary assignment. The employee would not become eligible for rehire at the college until the beginning of the next calendar year.
Another option is to convert a temporary position to a regular, benefit-based position through the budget approval process.
In alignment with the 2023 Budget, communication to impacted employees will occur directly from the Office of Human Resources upon adjustment to compensation. For compensation adjustments that occur as part of the annual budget process, communication to impacted employees will be sent around September.
The President’s Cabinet along with the Board of Trustees recommends faculty and salary percentage increases as part of the annual budget process and those adjustments are communicated by the President in early fall. In 2025, we will engage in a comprehensive review of total compensation including base salaries and benefits. This information will be used to determine if additional adjustments are necessary to ensure competitiveness in our labor markets and the financial sustainability of the college.