With the University of Idaho’s strategic plan becoming a reality, UI President Chuck Staben reaffirmed his goals at the latest Staff Council meeting Oct. 12.
Staben said he wanted to present to the Staff Council to refresh and review on some aspects of the strategic plan and to discuss issues within the plan that pertain to current and future staff.
Staben reviewed a nationwide survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education, which examines workplace satisfaction levels among faculty and staff. He said the overall numbers for UI were a little bit lower than anticipated. Staben said the university is currently working on some things that could have a positive impact on morale, such as increasing compensation.
“We do know that compensation is an issue,” Staben said. “We also know that the nature of the distribution of compensation, and how jobs are compared and classified is also an issue.”
Staben said the university is making a large effort to get to market-based salaries, which he believes will address some concerns amongst the staff. Staben said he believes if UI can achieve its strategic goals of growing enrollment, the university will grow its net tuition, and that is where the money will come from to help employees.
Staff Council also discussed the change in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The FLSA determines which employees are eligible for overtime pay.
To be exempt from overtime pay, an employee must make a certain amount per year, also known as a minimum salary test. Greg Fizzell, Staff Council Chair, said that starting Dec. 1 the minimum salary will increase by nearly double.
“The impact from that is that when UI has staff that have been exempt from overtime, that no longer meet the new salary test, then they’ll have to go from exempt to non-exempt status,” Fizzell said.
Fizzell said because of the change some staff will move from a salary to an hourly wage. This is beneficial, because staff must be paid overtime for anything more than 40 hours a week, he said.
“When you’re an exempt staff member, and you earn a salary, you are paid a sum to do your job,” Fizzell said. “Sometimes it’ll take 40 hours a week, or it can take 60 hours a week, and you don’t get paid overtime for that.”
There are drawbacks to the change, he said. The new language will also affect employee benefits such as vacation time and retirement plans.
Fizzell said exempt employees accumulate more vacation time per pay period than a non-exempt employee. Exempt employees also have a different retirement plan than non-exempt employees.
Fizzell said people at the university want to help employees who will move from exempt to non-exempt in December by allowing them to keep the vacation time and retirement plans they already established.
“There are about 140 employees that will be affected by the new salary test,” Fizzell said. “We’d like them to be able to keep the same vacation accrual, and retirement plans that they’ve had since becoming employed at UI.”
Andrew Ward can be reached at [email protected]