As part of the 2011-12 budget, the UC Board of Regents approved a plan to create a pool of funds from which non-represented UC employees could receive merit-based salary increases.

Employees eligible for merit increases will see their new salary levels reflected in their November 1 paychecks. Faculty merit increases are effective October1. The increases for staff members are retroactive to July 1, and adjustments in pay for July, August, and September are expected to be included in employees? December 1 paychecks.

The merit pool will be calculated at 3 percent of the overall pay in the eligible personnel categories. Individual increases will be based on performance, and determined by the appropriate divisions or units. The personnel categories include managers and senior professionals, and professional and support staff.

Members of the UC senior management group, and staff members with an annual base salary of $200,000 or higher, are excluded from the merit increases.

According to UC President Mark G. Yudof, the increases are designed to serve as a tool for helping campuses recruit and retain faculty members, and to acknowledge non-represented staff members for their continuing dedication and service. ?University quality cannot be compromised, and our excellent professors and researchers are the fountainhead of that quality,? Yudof said.

?Another purpose is to demonstrate to non-represented staff members that we understand and appreciate how hard they have worked, through difficult times, on behalf of the University of California,? he continued. ?Fairness dictates that we take this step. Our non-represented staff members have not received a merit or cost-of-living increase for nearly four years, and took pay cuts through the furlough program.?

Yudof also noted that, due to benefit reforms, all non-represented employees are seeing their take-home pay diminish as their contributions to health and pension plans increase. ?It should be noted, as well, that most of our colleagues who are represented by unions, by virtue of existing negotiated contracts, have received regular pay increases throughout this long-running fiscal crisis.?

Questions about the staff merit program can be directed to Kathy Moore or Coni Edick in Human Resources. Moore can be reached at x7137 or kathy.moore@hr.ucsb.edu. Edick is at x3197 or coni.edick@hr.ucsb.edu. Questions about the academic merit program can be directed to Cindy Doherty at x8332 or cindy.doherty@ap.ucsb.edu.