In June, Human Resources provided an update on legislative appropriations for state employee salary increases approved in the 2018-19 Fiscal Year State Budget.
Specifically, we reported that the North Carolina General Assembly:
- Appropriated $20 million to the UNC System for employee salary increases for the 2018-19 Fiscal Year.
- Established a new minimum annual salary of $31,200 for all permanent state employees and approved a separate state appropriation to support its implementation across state government.
Since then:
- A decision was made at the UNC system level, supported by the campus Chancellors and approved by the UNC Board of Governors, to use the $20 million appropriation to provide a 2% across-the-board increase to our university SHRA employees, an increase equal to the amount appropriated by the General Assembly for their state agency counterparts.
- The UNC Board of Governors approved guidelines proposed by the UNC System Office for how both the 2% increase and new minimum salary would be implemented across the UNC system (final guidelines were provided to the campuses in August).
- University leadership worked to identify funds to implement these increases, as the state appropriation was not sufficient and applied only to positions funded with state funds.
Appalachian made some progress in identifying funding. For our SHRA workforce, the 2% across-the-board increase will be implemented for eligible employees in September payroll, retroactive to July 1, 2018. The increase will apply to positions funded from state and non-state funded sources.
Per the guidelines recommended by the UNC System Office and approved by the UNC Board of Governors, to be eligible for the 2% salary increase, employees must meet all of the following criteria:
- Classified as a permanent full- or part-time SHRA employee.
- Have a completed 2018 performance evaluation with an overall rating of either “meeting expectations” or “exceeding expectations.”
- Have no active formal disciplinary action(s).
- Employed in a permanent or time-limited position as of October 1, 2017.
- Employed in active status as of September 30, 2018, when the increase is implemented.
After application of the 2% increase described above, any university employee with an annual salary remaining below the new $31,200 minimum will have their annual salary increased to that amount.
- This increase, where applicable, will also be applied in September payroll and will also be retroactive to July 1, 2018.
- The new state employee minimum salary applies to permanent SHRA and EHRA employees and will be applied to positions funded from state and non-state sources.
- The $31,200 salary minimum is for full-time, full year permanent employees. The minimum salary for permanent employees working less than 40 hours per week and those with appointments less than twelve months is proportionate to their respective work hours and/or appointment terms.
Unfortunately, for the first time in five years, we will not be able to provide an annual raise process for EHRA faculty and non-faculty employees this year.
Providing competitive compensation for all Appalachian employees continues to be a strong priority. While the focus on our lowest-paid employees is extremely important, our work is not done. We will continue to work to identify every opportunity to fund salary increases for our employees in the future.