Academic Professional & Unclassified/Unranked Classification-Compensation Study

Why is this study being done?

  • Consistency is at the heart of fairness. Additionally, this is one of University's top priorities.
  • To bring consistency to the process of deciding pay and position titles for PSU employees, ensuring internal equity.
  • To review how PSU compensation compares to the external market.
  • To comply with AAUP 2015/2016 negotiations requesting a review of the Academic Professionals compensation systems. 
  • To create PSU's compensation system for Unrepresented/Unranked employees.

What will this study do?

  • Create a set of job families, job levels, and pay ranges that include all Academic Professionals & Unrepresented/Unranked jobs.
  • Create consistent titles for jobs across departments. 
  • Create system for rewarding performance, while recognizing expertise and experience. 
  • Assist with employee recruitment and retention by creating career pathways, addressing internal equity, and considering the external market. 
  • Create a compensation philosophy for PSU in order to guide initiatives around employee pay and total compensation. 

Who has been involved & who will this impact?

  • PSU Advisory Committee worked with an outside consultant, Sibson Consulting, from 2016-2018 to conduct this study.
  • As of 2017, there were approximately 450 Unrepresented/Unranked and 350 Academic Professionals at PSU. All of these positions would fall into the newly established job families.

How will the changes happen?

Un/Un PositionsAcademic Professional Positions
  • Each existing Un/Un job was placed in a family, at a level, with an established pay range. Any new job that is created will fall into a family and established pay range. 
  • Changes to pay may occur incrementally, if it is determined that an Un/Un employee's current pay is lower than the established range for their position. 
  • Current Un/Un employees' pay will NOT be decreased if it is determined that their current pay is higher than the established range. In these cases, pay increases may be limited as long as they are doing a job within that pay range.
  • When Un/Un vacant positions are refilled, pay offers will fall within the established range for that position.

When will these changes take place?

Un/Un PositionsAcademic Professional Positions
  • Job Groupings (families) and Career Tracks were created in late 2017.
  • Positions being placed in groupings (families), Spring 2021
  • Any pay decisions would be determined through the collective bargaining process after the position placement process is complete. 

Frequently Asked Questions