I.         Philosophy:

The Montana University System shall maintain a compensation program directed toward attracting, retaining, and rewarding a highly qualified and diverse workforce to serve students and the state of Montana. Within the affordability boundaries of students and taxpayers, compensation shall be externally competitive, internally equitable, and based upon career commitment and merit.

 

II.       Objectives:

A.      To establish compensation levels for positions on the basis of relative internal equity and external competitiveness within relevant labor markets;

 

B.      To encourage employees to make a performance difference where results/outcomes are more important than entitlements and to reward employees on the basis of work performance, career commitment to the system and support of the missions of the institution and the Montana University System;

 

C.      To focus on the value of total compensation, which includes salary and non-salary benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, and paid leave programs;

 

D.      To provide an opportunity for employees at every level to achieve their reasonable aspirations in a framework of equity, impartiality, and reasonableness; and

 

E.      To ensure accountability, affordability and access to students and taxpayers, and the wise expenditure of funds entrusted to the Montana University System.

 

III.      Strategies:

A.      Internal equity means that individuals will be paid similarly for similar work, productivity and contribution to the mission of the institution and the system.

 

B.      The size of the employing institution, budgetary constraints, and position funding source shall not be used as the primary basis for establishing salaries.

 

C.      Merit includes an objective, comprehensive, and standardized assessment of an individual's job performance and the impact of the individual's position on the mission of the institution and Montana University System.

 

D.      External competitiveness will be determined on the basis of average salary levels of individuals in comparable positions in the various labor markets inside and outside of higher education in which the institutions compete, along with turnover and recruitment data. Higher education institutions used for salary comparison purposes may vary based on individual campus characteristics.

 

E.      The overall level of compensation must not place the Montana University System as a whole in a non-competitive cost situation relative to tuition and fees.

 

F.      Compensation will be reviewed periodically on an ongoing basis. These analyses will be used, in part, to support the system's efforts to obtain appropriate salary funding from the state legislature and justify tuition increases.

 

Taking into account the above factors and the collective bargaining process, overall compensation parameters will be established by the Board of Regents on at least a biennial basis.