In an ArchNews memorandum to faculty and staff April 18, university senior vice presidents Arnett C. Mace Jr. and Tim Burgess announced the administration will commit $2.7 million from institutional sources to supplement salary increase funds provided by the state and the board of regents.
The funds will be directed to increasing UGA’s minimum hiring rate to $21,000 a year from the current level of $20,000, and will address salary compression for lower-paid employees associated with raising that minimum rate.
Additionally, the funding will ensure that all faculty and staff receive a minimum 0.5 percent pay increase to help mitigate growing economic and inflationary pressures such as health insurance costs and the recently announced parking fee increase.
These funds are on top of the 2.5 percent merit-based salary pool provided by the governor, the General Assembly and the board of regents effective Jan. 1, 2009, which will provide an annualized increase of $9.9 million.
The regents allocated an additional $1.8 million annually to help UGA address declining competitiveness of faculty salaries. The additional allocation will enable UGA to enhance the salary pool for all faculty ranks, with particular emphasis on the associate professor level, where competitiveness has been a particularly acute issue.
“We are grateful that the university is able to self-fund some salary enhancements beyond what the state has provided, as additional funding for faculty salaries remains a top priority,” said President Michael F. Adams.
Mace and Burgess added, “While we wish that more could have been done at this time, we are grateful for the good stewardship of resources.”
