As part of its commitment to being an employer of choice, the University of Arkansas is making a significant investment in compensation and resources designed to support the success of faculty and staff. After receiving a market adjustment provided in the form of a 3% cost-of-living adjustment to base pay earlier this year, many in-scope faculty and staff members will receive an additional market adjustment to their base pay in two phases starting this fall.

In addition, the minimum base pay rate for graduate assistants will also increase after a recent benchmarking project. 

A new Compensation Projects website provides information and resources about these three distinct projects: 

• Staff Classification and Compensation
• Faculty Compensation
• Graduate Assistant Benchmarking

More details will be added to the site periodically as implementation progresses.

“Market-relevant pay is one factor that helps attract, reward and retain the university’s talented people” said Michelle Hargis Wolfe, associate vice chancellor for human resources and chief people officer. “These projects and associated market adjustments will help enhance the university’s reputation as an employer of choice, one critical component of our 150 Forward strategic goals.”

Staff Classification and Compensation Project

• The primary online resource for the Staff Classification and Compensation Project, the website’s staff project home page contains links to view the university’s 18 new job families, 91 new job subfamilies, career streams and levels, more than 750 job profiles and new pay structure.
• For employees who are unfamiliar with the basic elements and history of the staff project, the website’s project background page summarizes the collaborative process that units across campus followed during the past two years, detailing how position responsibilities were evaluated with similar work performed in the market. 
• The market adjustment implementation page provides an overview of how additional market adjustments will be distributed starting in October.  

In addition to the website, the university has created a job classification architecture overview video and full training video.

For questions about the staff project, contact Michelle Hargis Wolfe or Amy Ochoa.

Faculty Compensation Project

• The Faculty Compensation Project focuses on aligning faculty pay based on a comprehensive market analysis.
• The faculty project page outlines the methodology behind the project, implementation details, and the timeline for additional market adjustment applications for affected faculty.

Graduate Assistant Benchmarking Project

• The Graduate School benchmarked minimum graduate assistant base pay within the Southeastern Conference.
• The graduate assistant project page summarizes the new minimum base pay rates for both 9-month and 12-month GAs.

Questions about the faculty or graduate assistant project may be directed to Jim Gigantino.