March 14, 2011
To: System-wide UT Faculty and Staff
From: President Joe DiPietro
Re: Increase in Minimum Starting Pay Rate
The University has adopted a recommendation to increase the minimum starting pay rate for regular full- and part-time staff. The new rate of $8.50 an hour will become effective on July 1, 2011.
This increase in the minimum starting pay rate was a recommendation from our Compensation Advisory Board and is a first step in a long-term process to address compensation at the University. Our Compensation Advisory Board, guided by Chief Human Resources Officer Linda Hendricks, is creating UT's first-ever strategic compensation plan and will be advancing more recommendations in the coming months and years.
It is important to note the increase for the minimum starting pay was among suggestions submitted by faculty and staff to the Board of Trustees' Effectiveness and Efficiency for the Future Committee, through our online feedback forum known as UTalk and to various employee representative groups.
Present economic circumstances have had the greatest impact on support service staff in pay grades 30, 31 and 32. Accordingly, this is the starting point for the rate change. This change will result in pay increases for approximately 270 service support staff across the state. Funding for these increases will come from reallocations of existing budgets.
Additional communication and supervisory training efforts are in process to support effective implementation of this new minimum starting pay rate. Your campus or institute human resources staff can provide information and are available to answer questions.
HR contacts and HR-related news and information are online at: http://humanresources.tennessee.edu/.
For more information about the Compensation Advisory Board, please visit http://humanresources.tennessee.edu/cab/.
All of our employees -- faculty and staff -- are essential to the success of the University of Tennessee.
Thank you for your commitment and service.
