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Compensation Modernization initiative concludes with $60 million investment in staff salaries

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State has concluded its Compensation Modernization initiative with a $60 million investment to better align staff salaries with new, market-informed salary grades.  

The Compensation Modernization initiative’s end marks the beginning of Penn State’s new classification and compensation program, designed to maintain the University’s position as an employer of choice.

“I am thrilled to see the implementation of our new classification and compensation program coming to fruition, and the University’s historic investment in staff salaries makes this occasion especially significant,” said Jennifer Wilkes, vice president for Human Resources and chief human resources officer. “There is a lot more to look forward to as we continue to build out our staff classification and compensation plan. In the future we will be unveiling new career development resources and introducing our annual promotion process this fall.” 

In order to transition into the new salary structure, many staff members received increases. There were others that were already compensated within their new pay grade, so salary increases have not been provided to every staff member. In addition, increases were granted utilizing a variety of factors including but not limited to performance, knowledge, experience, unit-specific goals, and available funding.

 “We’re thankful for the hard work of every member of our staff and grateful for their patience, engagement and feedback as we worked to improve Penn State’s classification and compensation structure,” said Wilkes.

All staff members can now view their finalized salary information in Workday and staff members who received increases as part of this initiative will see them reflected in their March paycheck.

Staff can view their finalized salary using the following steps:
1.    Log into Workday.
2.    Select View Profile from the employee icon at the top right corner of the page.
3.    Select Compensation to view total base pay. 
4.    Staff can then select Pay Change History to verify whether they have received an increase.

Additionally, employees can learn more about their total compensation, including the value of their benefits, by using the Total Compensation online tool.

While the Compensation Modernization Initiative is now complete, Human Resources will continue to build on what has been implemented by rolling out the new staff reclassification and promotion processes later this year, as well as new career development resources. Updated web content will be added to the Compensation Modernization initiative web page on the Human Resources website during March, with a full redesign of the Classification and Compensation webpages planned for April.