Missouri State University

Final Report Glossary

Across-the-board increase: Wage increase granted to all employees, regardless of performance

Ad Hoc Process Improvement Committee: The Ad Hoc Process Improvement Committee consists of the original Process Improvement Committee plus two additional faculty representatives assigned by Faculty Senate, two additional staff representatives assigned by Staff Senate, and the Director of Institutional Research.

Annual Compensation Change: The Annual Compensation Change is based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Cost Index data on Wages and Salaries for Civilian Workers, ECU2001A. This index provides quarterly year-to-year percentage changes in wages and salaries for workers and is a more stable and realistic indicator of year-to-year changes in pay than are CPI measures.

Cost Center: Any unit of activity, such as a group of employees, isolated or arranged in order to allocate and assign costs more easily

COLA: Cost-of-living increase, which is an across-the-board increase, based on change in cost of living

CPI: Consumer Price Index; measures changes in prices over time

CUPA: College and University Professional Association

Exempt Status: Employees who do not earn overtime as determined by the Fair Labor Standards Act

FY07: Fiscal Year 2007, from July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007

FY08: Fiscal Year 2008, from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008

FY09: Fiscal Year 2009, from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009

IBEW: International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

Internal Equity: the internal hierarchy of jobs within an organization based on the value of the job to the organization in terms of required knowledge, skills, difficulty, scope, and impact of work (does not necessarily mean that all people doing the same job will earn equal pay; pay may vary due to length of time in the position and variations in levels of performance)

Job Evaluation: Procedure that is useful for determining the relative value of jobs in an organization

Market Equity: Fair wage in comparison to what other employers are paying outside of the organization; also referred to as external equity

Merit Pay/Adjustment: A reward granted to the employee in the form of a wage increase that recognizes outstanding performance; appropriate modification to an employee's salary as determined by performance evaluations

Non-exempt Status: Employees who do earn overtime as determined by the Fair Labor Standards Act

Pay Differential: Pay differences among employees, specifically between employees performing the same job

Pay Equity: Employees performing jobs judged to be equal on some measure of inherent worth being paid the same, assuming all other factors influencing pay being equal

Pay-for-Performance Plan: Pay that varies with measures of individual (or organizational) performance, including various forms of merit pay

Pay Range: The range of pay rates from minimum to maximum set for a job; indicates the worth of the job to the organization and (within the limits of the pay range) allows the organization to recognize individual performance differences with pay

Performance Evaluation: A process to determine correspondence between worker behavior/task outcomes and employer expectations (performance standards)

Performance Evaluation Tool: Framework or system for evaluating employee job performance

Performance Rating: Score from a performance evaluation, often used to determine salary adjustments

Salary Increase Pool: Amount of funds available to be used for wage increases