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Salary Appeals Process

Overview

The Office of Academic Affairs has established a new process for full-time faculty members seeking a review of their current salary and/or merit raise. This process was informed by and developed after conversations with many faculty members and the University Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Gender Pay Equity, as well as review of best practices at other institutions.

Appeals Process

Full-time faculty members who wish to appeal their current salary and/or merit raise are strongly encouraged to begin by raising the issue with their department chair/school director as a first step. This initial conversation allows the chair/director to provide greater context for salary appeals.

A full-time faculty member who decides to appeal should follow the steps below. It’s important to note an appeal is allowed no more than once every three years.

  1. The faculty member composes a letter to their dean stating their current salary, merit raises from the previous three years (if available), desired outcome of the appeal, and  the rationale for the appeal, including:
    1. evidence of research, teaching, and service contributions from the previous one or two years; and
    2. where available, salary benchmarks using publicly available salary data.
  2.  The dean schedules a meeting with the faculty member within a month of receiving the written appeal letter. Prior to the meeting, the dean can request and obtain salary benchmark information from the assistant provost for faculty affairs.
  3.  Within two weeks following the meeting, the dean will respond in writing to the faculty member with a decision to either increase or maintain their salary.
  4.  If the faculty member is unsatisfied with the dean’s decision, they may appeal to the newly created Provost’s Faculty Salary Advisory Committee (PFSAC), a University-level advisory committee established to provide feedback to the provost on faculty salary appeals.
    1. The faculty member will submit their appeal to Amanda Latreille at arlatrei@syr.edu by March 1, 2024. That appeal material should include all information submitted to the dean, as well as the dean’s response.
    2. Separately, the dean will submit to Faculty Affairs an anonymized internal department or school salary comparison, which will be added to the PFSAC appeals packet. The internal comparison will not be shared with the faculty member appealing their salary.
    3. The PFSAC will meet in April 2024 to advise the Provost on each appeal it reviews.
  5.  Based on all elements of the faculty salary appeal, the Provost will render a final decision by July 1. The Provost’s decision is final and will be communicated in writing to the relevant dean and appealing faculty member.