As the offices of Finance and Business Strategy and Human Resources work on creating a long-term strategic compensation plan for the campus, CU Boulder leadership continues to take meaningful action to recruit and retain quality employees through salary and wage increases. 

“We must take care of our people who provide the foundation to our students’ success,” Chief Operating Officer Patrick O’Rourke said. “The ongoing actions we’ve taken the past couple of years, along with those still in the planning stages, are aimed at ensuring equity across divisions and supporting and retaining our people amid inflation pressures and the competitive job market.”

Ongoing efforts

CU Boulder leadership has taken a number of actions over the past 21 months to address compensation for various groups, including:

2021

• July: Campus minimum wage increase to $15 per hour, including related compression adjustments
• July: 3% across-the-board increase for classified staff
• December: One-time retention payments for critical frontline staff 

2022

• January: 3% across-the board increase for regular faculty, research faculty and university staff
• January: 1% one-time payment for regular faculty, research faculty and university staff
• January: Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act pay adjustments
• Spring: 3% increase to the standard campus rate for temporary faculty and graduate assistantships 
• May: Second round of one-time retention payments for critical frontline staff
• July: 3% across-the-board increase for classified staff
• October: $1,300 one-time payment (prorated for part-time appointments) for regular faculty, research faculty, university staff and classified staff 

2023

• January: 3% pool for merit-based increases for regular faculty, research faculty and university staff 
• January: Faculty promotion and tenure compression adjustments 
• Spring: 3% increase to the standard campus rate for temporary faculty and graduate assistantships
• Spring: Pay increases for some staff to address pay range and job family compression issues

Continued focus

The offices of Finance and Business Strategy and Human Resources are working together to create a strategic compensation plan that will encompass a holistic approach to:

• Maintaining competitive compensation for our employees to ensure CU Boulder remains an employer of choice in the state and among higher education institutions
• Ensuring pay equity across job types and divisions on our campus
• Establishing compensation pay setting practices and guidelines campuswide

The Faculty Salary Procedures Working Group also continues its work to study existing faculty salary procedures and to discern best practices.

The campus submitted budget proposals in February to the Board of Regents for the upcoming fiscal year that include additional salary increases, and the board is expected to vote on the budget in April. The CU system office will be submitting to the Joint Budget Committee, together with other state institutions of higher education, requests for additional state funding to meet increasing costs.

“We are committed to supporting our faculty and staff through these compensation efforts to ensure the success of our university and maintain CU Boulder as an employer of choice in the state and across higher education,” Provost Russell Moore said.