Task Force for Faculty Salaries and Merit Benchmarking

The Task Force for Faculty Salaries and Merit Benchmarking is a committee of faculty representatives tasked with analyzing faculty salaries and making recommendations for adjustments based on data-driven assessments. The task force has been meeting regularly for the past several months and has visited with various key stakeholders across campus, including Faculty Senate and senior leadership.

Faculty representatives on the task force submitted findings to the Office of the Provost for consideration, and those findings were presented to the President’s Executive Council (PEC). The PEC has approved a newly established, centrally-funded raise pool for all non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty as well as market-based salary adjustments.

All full-time faculty who hold tenure-line, tenured, and non-tenure line positions were included in the study, with the exception of research faculty and visiting faculty. Research faculty are funded through non-central sources, and visiting faculty are on short-term contracts.

Comparison data is sourced from the CUPA-HR database, which categorizes faculty into unique classifications based on tenure status and years of service. These classifications are then benchmarked against discipline-level CIP codes. Comparison data was drawn from public and private R1 and R2 universities in order to achieve sufficient comparable data. This represents, of a total of 800 institutions, a sub-set of 275 institutions, which accounted for 59,318 tenured/tenure track (TT) and 27,239 non-tenure track (NTT) salaries for comparisons.

Non-tenure track faculty are classified into four categories based on years of service (0-3 years, 4-6 years, 7-14 years, and 15+ years), while tenure-track faculty are classified as assistant, associate, and full professors. Both groups of faculty are also cross-classified by discipline-level CIP codes.

Going forward, the target compensation for positions will be a minimum of 95% of the market median based on a) discipline and b) years of service per the four categories described above (for NTT faculty) or rank (for TT faculty).

• 78% of NTT faculty and 93% of TT faculty were benchmarked at or above 95% of the median based on the data.
• 22% of individuals in NTT lines will see their pay increased through a centrally funded allocation.
• 7% of individuals in tenured/tenure-track lines will be reviewed for potential increases by their deans and department chairs.

Adjustments will be made during the regular merit cycle. Faculty who receive an adjustment will be notified of the amount when they receive their annual salary letter at the conclusion of the merit performance decisions. These letters will be issued by each school or college.

No, a ceiling on faculty salaries will not be imposed, and recommendations are not being made for adjusting salary differences above the determined threshold.

Deans have received reports of all benchmarked salaries in their respective schools/college. Each faculty member’s salary has been specifically benchmarked to the national median as a percentage above or below the median by both discipline and years of service (or rank, for TT faculty). Because SMU is a private institution, salary data is not made publicly available.

Yes. The central raise pool will fund each of the two promotion steps for NTT faculty at $3,000 and $6,000, respectively. This pool is available when faculty are promoted using the published and approved NTT promotion guidelines. This raise pool will be available for all future promotion cycles. The separate central raise pool for tenure-track (TT) faculty will continue.

Yes, these centrally-funded raises will be made at the same time as centrally-funded raises are made for TT faculty this cycle; the new salaries go into effect beginning with the academic year 2024-25.

Promotion raises made in previous years were made internally within each school/college and will not be adjusted centrally a second time. Salary adjustments can still be made through the annual merit pool.

Yes, based on feedback provided to schools/college on their NTT Promotion Guidelines, all faculty positions, including lecturer and senior lecturer, will have two promotion steps. Faculty Senate is collaborating during the spring 2024 term with schools/college to confirm these changes, and the policy will be revised accordingly.

The two studies examined distinct groups of employees at SMU and used different benchmarking data sets for comparing salaries. The faculty salary study looked at both tenure-track and non-tenure-track positions at SMU. It compared data from the CUPA-HR database, which organizes faculty based on tenure status and years of experience.

Meanwhile, the staff compensation study focused on the majority of staff positions. It used a combination of CUPA-HR data as well as available data from SMU's peer and aspirant institutions and employers in the DFW region. Both studies relied on the national median for salary comparisons, and neither factored in a cost-of-living adjustment

The median compensation targets for faculty and staff are determined by market data and the specific traits of each employee group, including qualifications, expertise, and experience. The demand for staff and faculty positions in the market varies and thus can lead to compensation at various percentages of the median. Staff positions can be found across different industries, outside of higher education, whereas faculty roles are often more specialized and less widely available. Additionally, the responsibilities and expectations associated with faculty and staff positions can vary significantly. For example, tenure-track faculty members typically have teaching, research, and academic service duties that differ from the administrative roles of staff members.

You can send questions or comments about the study and the results to facultysuccess@smu.edu.