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.

Visit the Salary Increase Program page for current/recent guidance.

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 vacant PCN if it has Compensation approval dated after Jan. 1, 2020, and has an attached position description.

Reuse of a PCN created prior to Jan. 1, 2020, is not permitted.

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. 

If you believe that the duties assigned to your employee do not align to the position to which they’re currently mapped, please follow these steps:

1. Connect with your Senior HR Partner for advice and to review your findings and decisions as you move through these steps. Senior HR Partners will provide additional recommendations and guidance.

2. Capture the core duties and responsibilities being performed on a Position Description form (PDF).

   • Review the How to Write a Position Description (PDF) for instructions.

   • Consider similar positions that exist within your unit. If the positions are supervised by different people, collaborate with them and review assigned duties to determine if the work is similar in function.

     Example: Five employees across multiple units may be mapped to the same job code. Upon discussion with the supervisors, you may find that the core duties and responsibilities are different.

3. If the proposed new position mapping falls into a new pay grade, check to see if the employee's current salary falls within the range.

4. Submit the Position Description form as part of an incumbent review (use the incumbent review step-by-step instructions).

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. 

External market data review involves reviewing jobs within the University’s career architecture against market data. This includes:

• Identifying external benchmarks based on carefully selected, reputable compensation surveys conducted by third-party organizations.

• Matching the survey data from jobs in relevant markets (e.g. higher education, general industry, and specialized industries) to jobs within the University’s career architecture.

Following the market review, the HR compensation team then presents findings and recommendations to University leadership.

Market Data Review Cycle:

• Fall
  • The University's career architecture is reviewed against third-party surveys.
• Winter
  • Findings and recommendations are provided to University leadership.
  • Once approved, results of the market data review are shared and included in planning assumptions by early January in advance of the budget planning period.
• Summer
  • Approved changes take effect in the new fiscal year. 

Outside of this cycle, ad hoc reviews can be performed throughout the year if a business need is identified or at the request of a department/unit. Please contact your Senior HR Partner with questions.

Fixed surveys – Higher education
Each annual review includes two sources for higher education surveys, which remain the same each year:

• Western Management Group's EduComp survey
• CUPA-HR's Higher Education surveys

Rotating survey – Private and public industry
Each annual review includes benchmark surveys that represent private and public agency data. The benchmark survey source we use rotates each year among:

• Mercer
• Towers Watson
• Compdata

As-needed surveys – Specific industry
Some University departments/units participate in industry-specific surveys on an annual basis. In these cases, the HR compensation team includes those surveys in the market review for specific industry jobs.

Survey data is matched to University jobs by comparing job descriptions in the survey to duties and responsibilities defined in our career architecture. To assist in this process, the HR compensation team imports survey data into a software system that houses all our career architecture jobs.

We then match median market salaries provided by the survey data to the midpoint of the salary range in existing pay grades in our University Staff pay structure. This comparison reveals where the University may differ from market.

Once the HR compensation team finalizes the external market data review, HR provides recommendations to executive leadership for final review and approval.

Not every market review results in updates to assigned pay grades. However, if University leadership determines that the market data review reveals a need to update compensation for certain jobs, then those jobs may be moved to different pay grades within the existing pay structure (i.e. the pay grades themselves would not change).

Example: A job within our career architecture might be assigned to pay grade 4. If data show that the market pays a higher salary range for that job, then the University may decide to re-assign the job to pay grade 5.

Note about pay raises: When a job is re-assigned to a new pay grade based on market data, pay increases for current employees are only required if an employee’s pay rate is below the minimum of the new pay grade. Other strategic pay increase decisions (e.g. to account for compression and internal equity) may be made by individual units and departments. Please contact your Senior HR Partner for guidance.