Compensation

Before making a salary offer, review the "Managing within Pay Ranges" chart in the Compensation Administration Guidelines (PDF). Each pay decision should include review of internal equity, and the individual's level of education, experience, knowledge and skills.

Although a department may offer a new employee compensation up to the midpoint of the pay range without approval from the HR Compensation team, please note that a large majority of new hires will fall into the first quartile of the chart.

The HR Compensation team recommends the following to manage wage compression and make informed pay decisions:

• Conduct an analysis of current wage compression in your unit with the assistance of your Senior Human Resources Partner.

• Consider and account for the costs involved in hiring and training replacements for current employees if they were to resign, as well as the loss of expertise and institutional knowledge.

• Document to your unit head the status of wage compression in your unit, the consequences of resignations among experienced employees and your requested budget for merit increases

University senior leaders have implemented an annual salary increase program as finances permit. Although parameters may change from year to year, the program typically has two components:

1. An across-the board increase.
2. Additional merit increases for particularly high-performing employees.

For more information about merit increases, please review the “Merit Raises” section in the Compensation Administration Guidelines (PDF).

See “Temporary Changes to Job Duties” in the Compensation Administration Guidelines (PDF). Your Senior Human Resources Partner may also be a useful resource for guidance, both with the short-staffing issues and with compensation recommendations.

You need to request a new PCN if you are adding a new position to your department or modifying a vacant position. Contact your business manager for assistance.

You can reuse a PCN if an employee vacates an existing University Staff position and the position is not being modified.

The University career architecture is based on benchmarked jobs (job that are common across industries and for which salary surveys are available). When external data do not exist to support a particular level within a job family, Compensation may determine it is appropriate to skip that level.

Please follow these steps

1. Connect with your Senior Human Resources Partner for advice.

2. Complete a position description form (PDF). Review the How to Write a Position Description (PDF) for instructions.

3. Submit the completed position description form to the HR Compensation team at compensation@arizona.edu.

4. A compensation analyst will evaluate the requested position against existing positions to determine if a new position should be added to the career architecture. 

As part of UCAP, the University mapped all Classified Staff employees to jobs within the career architecture. At that time, Classified Staff employees had the option to move to the University Staff position where they had been mapped or to maintain their Classified Staff status.

Employees who remain in the Classified Staff employee category still follow the FLSA exemption status and pay range of their career-architecture-mapped position. Classified Staff employees who receive a promotion or change jobs are required to transition to University Staff employment.

Yes, Classified Staff employees have the option to transition to University Staff employment at any time. They must complete the Transition to University Staff Form (PDF) and follow the submission instructions on the form.

Yes. A Classified Staff employee who meets all eligibility criteria is eligible for compensation/merit increases based on the pay grade for their mapped position.