Professional staff to receive salary increases

Western’s professional staff, which has not seen a salary increase for the past five years, will receive 3 percent across-the board salary increases on Sept. 1, Western President Bruce Shepard announced today.

“Working closely with the Professional Staff Organization (PSO), we are very pleased to announce these self-funded salary increases,” Shepard said. “Western competes nationally for the best employees and university leadership recognizes that competitive salaries for employees is critically important to ensuring the academic excellence and student-centered educational focus for which Western is well-known.”

In addition to the 3 percent salary increases on Sept. 1, funds equivalent to an additional 1.0 percent increase are being held in a pool, bringing the professional staff compensation package to an overall 4 percent increase.

The 1.0 percent pool will be apportioned based on merit and position market analysis and will not be across the board. It will be allocated once the revised Professional Service Organization Compensation Plan has been finalized and approved. The tentative timeline for completion is September/October 2013.

Human Resources and the PSO Executive Committee will be working together to develop criteria to help in guiding future compensation adjustments for professional staff with PSO members’ input.

This is the first time in years that compensation for professional staff could be addressed by university administration given the state-mandated salary freeze, which took effect in 2008 as part of a series of state budget cuts during the economic slowdown. That salary freeze was recently lifted as of July 1.

“I offer my sincere gratitude to PSO membership for their patience and understanding as discussions have developed over past months regarding professional staff compensation,” said President Shepard.  He also recognized the diligence and hard work of the PSO Executive Committee and the Office of Human Resources.

Western’s Board of Trustees, in order to provide funding needed to hire and retain the highest quality professional staff, approved the recommendations by WWU vice presidents and deans for the 2013-14 Operating Budget that included $709,678 allocated for “unrepresented staff competitive compensation adjustments.”