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The University has made substantial progress in the last three years in moving SPA employees' salaries up within pay grades.
Better than three out of every five SPA employees earn more than the midpoint of their salary range, according to salary data compiled by human resources officials at UNCC and distributed throughout the state university system.
That puts the University way ahead of the other 15 state campuses. The next best school is the North Carolina School of the Arts, where only two of every five SPA employees make more than the midpoint of their salary range.
Moving employee salaries up within each employee's salary grade is important because it allows workers to get raises above cost-of-living raises, thereby helping the University keep good employees in the Triangle's competitive labor market, said Laurie Charest, associate vice chancellor for human resources.
"If people start at the minimum of their salary range and only get cost-of-living raises, they remain at the minimum," Charest said. "That's because the salary range also increases by the cost-of-living rate."
The Office of State Personnel in July 1996 gave all state agencies, including the 16 universities, the authority to move SPA employees who meet specific criteria up within salary grade, Charest said, and Carolina has worked hard to increase salaries ever since.
"Several years ago we had about two-thirds of our employees at or below the midpoint of their salary grade," Charest said.
The Office of State Personnel's grant of more freedom to increase salaries did not come with more state money for such increases, Charest said.
The University has had to come up with its own money for such raises and Charest credits the hard work of each campus unit or department for the success. She said departments have provided raises from vacant positions, money leftover when a departing employee is replaced by a lower-paid successor and even from non-salary funds.
Competition for good employees in the Triangle's tight labor market has fueled the need to raise salaries, Charest said.
"It puts a strain on our resources to have to compete in this market," Charest said.
That competition for employees shows up in another part of the data collected by the UNCC staff: Carolina has the highest average salary for SPA employees.
Carolina's average salary for an SPA employee is $30,777. N.C. State is a close second at $29,110. The lowest is Fayetteville State University at $24,381.
The difference is partly because of Carolina (and N.C. State) being Research I universities and therefore having some higher-paid positions associated with research.
To Jim Ramsey, vice chancellor for finance and administration, the salary rankings for the 16 campuses make a compelling case for geographical pay, which would have the state provide more salary money to campuses where the cost-of-living is higher and the competition for workers is stiffer.
"We believe that it's important for the state's classification/compensation system to recognize the differences in the various local and regional labor markets and that the supply and demand for various skills is not uniform across the state," Ramsey said.
One other piece of data collected by UNCC was the average years of experience for SPA employees at each campus. Here Carolina was eighth, at 9.2 years. Elizabeth City State and N.C. A&T had the highest average at 11.5 years.
Charest viewed this ranking as good for Carolina.
"Considering our marketplace and all the opportunities our employees have to move on, I think that shows we're doing well," Charest said.
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