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How to Determine How Much Your Salary is Compressed?

Dear Colleagues,

Below you will find the Salary Equity and Compression Addendum Report Form.  The form provides information to members on the amount of DSI funds available for compression/inversion to the University at Buffalo.   It also provides information to help members, who recently received a letter informing them that they were receiving a Compression and Equity adjustment, the ability to determine how much they are compressed, and the precent of that compression that will be remediated this round (in UB’s case this number of 10.73%).

If you did not receive a letter from Human Resources specifically on a compression adjustment, your salary was not determined to be compressed by UUP.   If you did, however, use the formula below to determine how much your salary is compressed as determined by UB and New York State Budget Office data.

(Compression adjustment amount) X 100 = [Sub Total] [Sub Total]/10.75 = [total amount UUP has found your salary is Compressed]

Example.

My Human Resource letter says that my equity and compression adjustment for 2021 is for the amount of $1250.

To determine how much my salary is compressed I would use the following formula:

1250 X 100 = 125000

125000 / 10.75 = 11,627.91  <– How much your salary is compressed

In solidarity,

Kathleen Kielar
Vice President for Professionals
UUP Buffalo Center

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Addendum – 2021 Compression Report Form

2021 Campus Compression Report Form

The purpose of this form is to inform the campus community, SUNY System Administration, and UUP about the allocation of salary compression/inversion increases pursuant to the guidelines and methodology established through negotiations between the State/SUNY/UUP, including permissible discretion used by the administration to address campus-specific circumstances. Any questions should be addressed to Human Resources. 

Campus – University at Buffalo

Year of distribution 2021 

Amount of DSI funds available for compression/inversion (dollar figure of 0.5% of campus salaries) $1,671,114

Amount of compression/inversion salary increases actually distributed (Could be equivalent to 0.5% of campus salaries or more if other DSI funds were added) $1,671,114

Was a minimum threshold used for allocation of compression/inversion increases? 

I.e., Was there a dollar amount of identified compression/inversion for full-time employees (pro-rated for part-time employees) below which identified compression was not remediated? 

Yes, Threshold Amount $1,000                                   ; No_____________ 

Was the compression/inversion money distributed proportionately across UUP members who have compression/inversion identified for campus remediation.?In other words, did all individuals identified for compression/inversion increases get the same percentage of their compression/inversion remediated? 

Yes (Indicate percentage of identified compression remediated for all) 10.73%                  

No ____________________ 

If No, explain the campus distribution process, identifying the departments/functional areas that received a higher percentage of remediation than the “norm” across campus, the rationale for doing so, and the percentage of identified compression remediated in each of these departments/functional areas.

Campuses have discretion to exclude certain types of employees from the regression analysis and from remediation (i.e. receipt of salary increases to remediate compression). Identify if any of the following permissible exclusions were made by the campus administration: 

Excluded 

Yes/No 

Yes     Employees paid on a fee basis if their salaries cannot effectively be annualized and they earned less than $2,500 in the 26 pay periods preceding the date of the payroll used to perform the regression. 

Yes     Employees who have been off payroll on leave without pay for two years or more as of the payroll used to perform the regression. 

Yes     Visiting academics with less than four years of service in title (being careful NOT to exclude those temporarily in Qualified Academic Rank for tenure clock stop purposes). 

Yes     Division 1 athletic directors, and head coaches who have individually negotiated, market-based contracts in addition to a standard appointment letter. 

Yes     Faculty compensated at unusually high rates relative to other faculty in the same department/discipline (primarily at the University and Health Science Centers) whose salary deviates significantly from predicted salary given academic rank, market, and years in rank. 

Campuses have discretion to exclude certain types of employees who were included in the regression analysis from remediation (i.e. receipt of salary increases to remediate compression). Identify if any of the following permissible exclusions were made by the campus administration: 

Excluded 

Yes/No 

Yes     Part-time academics paid on a bi-weekly or other non-annual salaried basis with less than 2 years of service 

Yes     Part-time professionals paid on a bi-weekly or hourly basis with less than 2 years of service 

Yes     New employees with less than two years of service

_No_____ Certain retirees who are working post-retirement under Section 212 

_No_____ Employees working under a settlement agreement which includes an exit strategy 

_Yes_____ Full-time employees who have received notices of non-renewal 

Data sources used for market salary benchmarks 

For Academics 

CUPA 2021 Faculty in Higher Education Survey is the standard source using Tenure Track Faculty, New Assistant Professor in each department/discipline (except as otherwise specifically allowed). 

Identify which CUPA data source was used and any alternative approved data sources, identified in the SUNY-UUP guidelines for distribution of these salary increases. The source(s) used are as follows: 

CUPA 2020 Faculty in Higher Education Survey

For Professionals 

CUPA 2021 Professionals in Higher Education Survey should be used wherever possible. For certain positions the CUPA Staff or Administrators Surveys may contain comparable titles which are more appropriate comparators for benchmarking purposesIn those circumstances these surveys may be used instead. If CUPA data were not available for particular departments or functional areas, alternative data sources for those departments/functional areas as noted in the SUNY-UUP guidelines for distribution of these salary increases were used. 

Identify any alternative data sources used for Professionals, and the departments/functional areas for which they were used. The sources used are as follows:

None