Background

A 2% Pay Plan was approved by the Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Committee on Employment Relations for the UW System effective June 30, 2024.

Definitions and Roles

Academic Staff: Professional staff serving in professional administrative, instructional or research related positions but does not include faculty and staff provided under Wis. Stat. § 16.57.

Approved Leave: Paid or unpaid time off for the purpose of military service, medical care, sabbatical, or otherwise specific personal matter approved by the vice chancellor.

Faculty: Persons who hold the rank of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, or instructor in an academic department or its functional equivalent in an institution, persons described under Wis. Stat. § 36.13(4)(c) and such academic staff as may be designated by the chancellor and faculty of the institution.

Limited Appointment: An appointment to a designated administrative position, the holder of which serves at the pleasure of the authorized official who made the appointment. Certain positions must be designated as limited appointments under Wis. Stat. § 36.17(2), while others may be designated by the appointing authority as limited appointments at the time of the appointment.

Meets Expectations and/or Meritorious: An employee who through a written and documented, current evaluative process, or who, by UWL policy or practice, has been deemed to meet expectations in all areas of their job performance. Any employee who does not meet minimum expectations as defined by UW System or UWL, is under a performance/remediation plan, or who is required to complete, but failed to do so, the Outside Activity Report; or required online training program(s) for Information Security Awareness and Preventing Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment by required deadlines, will be deemed ineligible for a merit pay adjustment.

Project Employee: A University Staff appointment hired for the purpose of completing a specific project and duration of work may not exceed 4 years.

Redbook: Permanent base budget for the university for a fiscal year. An individual in a Redbook position means the individual is in a permanent ongoing position that is eligible for promotion/progression and Pay Plan adjustments. The position is also counted in the UW System FTE allocation and part of the university’s continuing employee base.

Temporary Employee: For the purposes of these guidelines any faculty, staff or limited appointee in an assignment scheduled to last less than one academic year.

University Staff: Para-professional, administrative, blue collar and trades employees who are determined to be non-exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) due to the nature and function of the position duties.  (This also includes exempt University Staff positions that have yet to transition to Academic Staff.)

Vice Chancellor: The role within each Division that approves and oversees the merit allocation process ensuring equity and fairness in the process.

Employees Eligibility for State Pay Plan

• Employees who are part of the UWL continuing staff base as defined below:
  1. Employees employed, or promoted, on or before June 29, 2024, will receive the anticipated June 30, 2024 Pay Plan increase.
  2. Employees who are designated in one of the following full-time or part- time Budgeted Positions, or "Redbooked" classifications:
     1. Faculty
     2. Instructional Academic Staff
     3. Non-instructional Academic Staff
     4. University Staff
     5. Project Staff

• Employees identified as meets expectations or meritorious performers as defined above. Employees most recent (within 12 months) performance evaluation (as defined by the Division/College/School) or their supervisor must otherwise be able to demonstrate that the employee meets performance expectations.

Employees Ineligible for State Pay Plan

1. Employees with a performance appraisal rating of “Below Expectations” or “Unsatisfactory”. (Clarification added in 2022 - this also means 'not meritorious' for all eligible employee groups). This includes all employees on a performance improvement, or remediation, plan.
2. Employees who are required to complete the Outside Activity Reporting process as per Regent Policy Document 20-7, but fail to do so, will be deemed ineligible for Pay Plan.
3. Employees who are required to complete training of Preventing Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment as per Regent Policy Document 14-2 and Information Security Awareness as per UW System Administrative Policy 1032, but fail to do so, will be deemed ineligible for Pay Plan.
4. Employees found to have committed policy violations within three (3) months prior to the effective date of the Pay Plan, or who are currently under investigation for possible policy violations at the time of the Pay Plan, will not be eligible for Pay Plan.  Those under investigation who subsequently obtain an investigative result of no finding of policy violations will have their Pay Plan reinstated retroactively. 

These Guidelines Do Not Apply To

1. Limited-term
2. Ad hoc employees
3. Research Interns
4. Interim, acting appointments, or employees with a temporary base adjustment
5. Student Hourly Staff and Graduate Assistants
6. Employees in training
7. Seasonal Employees
8. Temporary Employees
9. Employees covered by collective bargaining

Other Considerations

1. No employee may be paid above the maximum of a salary range per UW System Policy: 1278. Pay above the maximum salary range may be exceeded if an extraordinary salary range is approved.  

The University Pay Plan Guidelines will be reviewed with Faculty Senate, Academic Staff Council, University Staff Council, and the Joint Planning and Budget Committee when necessary. 

Revision history:

Original approval was November 2019

Updated December 2019

Updated October 2020 to include sentence on the relief for employees on the mandatory training due to a transition to UWSS for coordination of the compliance training.

Updated on September 20, 2022 to reflect the following changes:

• Updated the dates to reflect the January 2023 Pay Plan eligibility dates. 
• Updated language to allow for outside activity reports and mandatory training requirements to be completed before the effective date of the Pay Plan.
• Removed reference to the Chancellor's Designated Payments as this was eliminated in UW System Policy in 2022. 

Updated July 31, 2023 to reflect the status of the anticipated Pay Plan for July 2023

Updated May 9, 2024 to reflect the Pay Plan for June 2024

Supporting tools:

• UW-La Crosse Compensation Toolkit: https://www.uwlax.edu/human-resources/services/classification-and-compensation/compensation/
• UW-La Crosse Performance Management Page: https://www.uwlax.edu/human-resources/employee-relations/performance-appraisals/
• UW-La Crosse Payroll Operations: https://www.uwlax.edu/human-resources/services/data/data-management-analytics/

Responsibilities:

N/A

Links to related information:

• UW System Administrative Policy 1278 Pay Plan Distribution Framework: https://www.wisconsin.edu/uw-policies/uw-system-administrative-policies/uw-system-pay-plan-distribution-framework-for-university-workforce/
• Payroll Policy:  https://www.uwlax.edu/human-resources/faculty-and-staff/policies-and-procedures/payroll-policy/
• UW-La Crosse Pay Plan Policy: [Link coming soon]
• UW-La Crosse HR Payroll Calendars and other Payroll Information: https://www.uwlax.edu/human-resources/services/data/data-management-analytics/
• UWL Additional Compensation and Overloads: https://www.uwlax.edu/human-resources/services/data/additional-compensation-overloads/
• UW System Administrative Policy 1277 Compensation: https://www.wisconsin.edu/uw-policies/uw-system-administrative-policies/compensation/
• UW System Administrative Policy 230 Salary and Fringe Benefit Calculations: https://www.wisconsin.edu/uw-policies/uw-system-administrative-policies/salary-fringe-benefit-calculations/
• UW System Administrative Policy Overload Payments and Temporary Base Adjustments for Faculty, Academic Staff, and Limited Appointees: https://www.uwlax.edu/globalassets/offices-services/human-resources/overload-administrative-policy--final---4-25-14.pdf