Cornell officials are planning a two-step program to improve staff compensation significantly.

Phase one, effective Jan. 29, 1998, raises the minimum hiring rates 8 to 14 percent. Staff whose salaries currently fall below these new minima will receive salary adjustments in February to bring them up to the new minima. Phase two, effective in July 1998, provides an enhanced pay-for-performance salary improvement program in the endowed colleges. As in the past, the baseline endowed Salary Improvement Program (SIP) will reward satisfactory performance at or above the rate of inflation (approximately 2 percent in 1997). An additional component amounting to approximately $4 million will be targeted toward rewarding superior performance and for equity adjustments.

Frederick A. Rogers, senior vice president and chief financial officer, said the compensation improvement program is appropriate and necessary for Cornell to remain competitive in the recruitment and retention of employees. "These changes should have a significant positive impact," he said, "and they reflect the university's commitment to support and reward staff in a highly competitive market."

"President Rawlings has identified the improvement of staff compensation as one of his top priorities, and this two-phase compensation plan is the first step in a multiyear effort in that regard," said Mary Opperman, associate vice president for human resources. "This is a major investment of university resources, and we are delighted to be able to make this commitment to our staff."

Opperman said approximately 250 employees currently are below the new minima, and they are clustered mostly in the lower pay bands. The salary of all those below the new minima, in both the statutory and the endowed colleges, will be adjusted to the appropriate salary level by Jan. 29. The newly adjusted pay rates for affected staff will appear in the exempt paychecks on Feb. 12, and in the nonexempt paychecks on Feb. 19.

The adjustments in Phases I and II will cost the university a total of approximately $8.5 million for salaries and benefits in 1998-99, not including the state-funded salary programs, Rogers said. Resources for the adjustments will come largely from student charges for tuition, room and board, increased endowment income as a result of the strong stock market over the past few years, and savings in budgets of all units in both the statutory and endowed colleges for the coming year.

As an indication of the importance of improving faculty and staff compensation, Rogers noted that "the rate of increase of salaries in the new salary programs will be greater than the rate of increase in tuition -- the first time this has happened in over two decades."

Meg Overstrom, chair of the Employee Assembly, said, "I am pleased the administration is moving toward a more equitable salary base by increasing the minimums for the salary bands. In addition, the second phase of improving staff compensation (awarding employees based on their job performance) is an excellent way to motivate employees. Both steps will help improve morale on campus through this time of tremendous change."

Cornell's statutory colleges delivered performance-based pay increase programs to their nonexempt staff in fall '97, and they anticipate another pay increase program to be authorized by the State of New York in fall '98. Exempt statutory staff will receive merit-based pay increases in early '98 and early '99.