CIRES HR has been working on a two-phase, institute-wide compensation project since early 2021. Below is an update on where the process stands as of December 2022.
Phase 1 Update: CIRES Internal Salaries Comparison (largely completed in Fall 2022)
Guided by the Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act and campus-related protocols, CIRES HR launched its effort to conduct salary equity reviews in January 2021, with a focus on peer-to-peer employee compensation in alignment with CU protocols. This effort involved an in-depth analysis of employee salaries (Associate and Research scientists) in individual CIRES labs, units and centers. At a high level, here is a reminder of the Act’s key components:
What the Act DOES do:
- Requires transparency in hiring salaries: Immediate action – job postings must list salary ranges or salary rate at which job candidates will be hired based on level of experience.
- Prohibits wage discrimination on basis of sex or other protected class in combination w/ sex.
- Requires employers to maintain job descriptions and wage rate history.
- Requires notifications of job postings and promotional opportunities, if vacancy exists.
- Prohibits use of wage history to determine wage rate for prospective employees.
- Requires similar pay for substantially similar work.
What the Act DOES NOT do:
- Require employees to be paid labor market rate.
- Require salary reductions.
- Require retroactive implementation of salary changes prior to January 1, 2021.
Why is CIRES HR managing this effort?
Campus delegated responsibility for analysis of research faculty salaries (Associate and Research scientists) to institutes. This was largely due to the complexity in funding sources and differences amongst institutes. Campus HR oversees salary analysis for university staff and tenure track faculty.
How did Phase I work?
The salary equity reviews were a multi-step process, using the same protocols recommended by CU Boulder HR and as required per the Act to examine peer salaries within each unit. Data analysis was performed by Angela Knight, CIRES HR Director; Christine Wiedinmyer, Associate Director for Science; and unit leadership. Unit leadership gathered additional internal input as appropriate and in consideration of available budget. CU Boulder does allow for budget to be a consideration in final salary determinations for research positions; therefore, HR recommends a phased approach for new salaries when budget is a limiting factor. For more detailed information on our salary equity review process and broader compensation analysis project, please see the slides and videos from CIRES HR’s September 2021 information sessions here.
To establish potential peers, all regular, occupied Associate Scientist (Professional Research Assistant/PRA) and Research Scientist (Research Associate/RA) positions were reviewed and grouped by career track level. Next, we considered the factors of gender, ethnicity, and age—protected class information, which is available to us from CU Boulder HR systems and provided by employees at the time of hire. From there, the review included consideration of the nature of work, payroll job code (PRA or RA), salary, working title if applicable, job-related experience internal and external to CIRES/CU Boulder, time in current role, years since highest degree, and degree focus. Education level, external experience, licensure, certifications, and specialized skills or training were also reviewed for each individual.
Salary differences could generally be explained by one or more of the following reasons, all of which are allowed by law: nature of work, degree, degree level, level or scope of the role, time in the role/seniority, relevant experience at CU Boulder/CIRES, and other factors as outlined in the preceding paragraph. In those cases where salary differences could not be explained by one or more of the criteria listed, when low, the employee’s salary was flagged and often given an increase to the level of the higher paid substantially similar job pending available budget. Impacted employees received a notification letter regarding their increase. The goal was to ensure that pay differences for substantially similar work are not discriminatory based on protected class gender, age or race/ethnicity. No salaries were decreased as a result of this exercise.
This Phase 1 effort represents the internal comparison of peer salaries as required by the Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act. As of Fall 2022, these reviews are largely complete; however, we’ve engaged external consultants from Colorado Employer’s Council to do a follow-up review of salaries related to protected class information during Phase 2.
Phase 2: CIRES Salaries Compared to External Data (Ongoing through 2023)
In Phase 2, CIRES established a goal that extends beyond the requirements of the Colorado Equal Pay Act: To examine how CIRES Associate and Research Scientist salaries compare to relevant external market data. To assist with this phase of the project, CIRES engaged external consultants, Employer’s Council, in January 2022.
As part of Phase 2, we plan to:
- Determine how CIRES Associate and Research scientist salaries compare to relevant market data
- Understand what constitutes a reasonable salary based on external data beyond CU Boulder and CIRES
- Determine feasible actions based on outcomes of external analysis and pending budget availability. This may include salary-related payroll actions such as adjustments to starting salaries, out-of-cycle increases, retention efforts, proposal budgets for positions, etc.
- Develop a Pay Philosophy to be applied across CIRES
As part of Phase 2, CIRES HR launched the Position Description Project in Fall 2021. Submitted position descriptions served as the basis for this phase as they allowed us to create an inventory of the various types of research and research support work ongoing at CIRES. These areas of work were then established as “Job Families,” which are used to group the types of work going on at CIRES in order to map to external market data for comparison. Now that we have created a draft Job Family framework, we have the following remaining objectives:
- Finalize internal Job Family framework
- Complete Market Study — Establish external market rates for Job Families
- Propose salary grades and recommended range structure. Assign functional titles to CIRES Associate and Research Scientist roles that align with labor market survey titles
- Establish consistent approach to pay decisions, which will comprise the CIRES Pay Philosophy structure
As part of the Market Study, we are using the following labor market surveys in establishing our recommended pay ranges:
- 2022 Employers Council Benchmark Compensation Survey (also used by CU Boulder)
- 2022 Employers Council Information Technology Compensation Survey (also used by CU Boulder)
- 2022 Payfactors Compensation Survey (also used by CU Boulder)
- 2022 Economic Research Institute (ERI) Compensation Survey
- 2021 Mercer US SIRS Benchmark Standard Survey – High Technology – STEM Industry (used by CU Boulder, LASP and Lockheed Martin)
- 2022 Office of Personnel Management (OPM) (federal pay structure)
Each research faculty employee (Associate and Research scientists) will be assigned a Functional Title as a result of their Job Family. The Functional Title represents the corresponding title used in labor market surveys which will then tie to a recommended pay range. Functional title examples include, Data Analyst, Modeler, Software Developer, etc. CIRES HR will vet those titles with employees and their supervisors to ensure their accuracy as much as possible. Stay tuned for future communications on that effort in early 2023.
The data that results from this exercise will establish recommended pay ranges for each functional area. Our external consultants will then compare existing employee salaries to those range so that we can establish which salaries need attention as the budget is available. We also plan to establish greater pay transparency in coordination with CU Boulder HR’s broader effort at the campus level. We anticipate this project lasting into late 2023.
We will report out on major milestones as this project moves forward. For additional information, please see the FAQs shared with CMC at the October 2022 meeting.
This important project would not be possible without ongoing contributions from the CIRES community—thank you! CIRES IT has been fundamental in supporting this effort as have Christine Wiedinmyer and our unit heads. We sincerely appreciate you working with us on this and we look forward to connecting on future updates.
Angela Knight, CIRES HR Director
