State officials announced earlier this week that there will be no pay increases for state employees, including faculty, over the next two years. However, UW-Madison was granted the authority to develop its own pay plan as part of the 2011-13 biennial budget, and the University Committee is discussing ways to exercise that authority. It is not clear how this week’s announcement might affect the university’s ability to offer a pay plan in this biennium.
The plan announced Tuesday also allows individual agencies to offer merit increases should they have money available in their budget, but the state is not making additional funds available for such increases. Any merit raises must be approved by the Office of State Employment Relations (OSER).
State officials also said that benefits including vacation, holidays, sick leave and sick leave conversion will not be changed. Changes were made, however, to how overtime is awarded and calculated. Extra pay that was awarded in certain circumstances, like mentoring a coworker or carrying a beeper for work reasons, was also eliminated.
The Joint Committee on Employment Relations must first approve the plan, and the Department of Administration has requested that the committee wait at least 10 days before taking a vote. The plan would take effect January 1, 2012.