The Fiscal Year 2016-17 state budget included three legislative compensation-related components for state employees. A 1.5% across-the-board salary increase for all permanent employees was applied on our campus in August payroll, retroactive to July 1. The other two components are bonus payments to eligible employees, to be paid in our October payroll. These payments are one-time lump-sum payments and not increases to employee salaries. This communication describes the eligibility requirements for these bonus payments.
0.5% across-the-board bonus payment. Eligible SHRA and EHRA employees will be awarded a bonus payment equal to 0.5% of their current annual base salaries as of September 1, 2016. The following criteria apply to these bonus payments:
- To be eligible, employees must be in a permanent full or part-time SHRA or EHRA position. Permanent part-time employees will receive pro-rated bonus amounts based on their work schedules.
- To receive this bonus, employees must have been in an active employment status as of September 1, 2016. The bonus does not apply to employees separated from employment prior to September 1 or those hired effective September 2 or later.
- Employees on paid or unpaid leaves of absence as of September 1, 2016 are eligible for the bonus.
- Employees are eligible for this bonus without regard to performance ratings or disciplinary actions.
1.0% one-time merit bonus pool. Additional one-time bonus payments will be awarded to eligible employees from an appropriated 1.0% merit bonus pool. These bonus payments are not across-the-board payments but will be awarded based exclusively on individual employee performance. Criteria for these merit-based bonus payments differ for SHRA and EHRA employees as described below.
- SHRA: As prescribed by the North Carolina Office of State Human Resources (OSHR), eligible SHRA employees will be awarded fixed-amount merit bonus payments based on their most recent performance appraisal ratings. For our campus, this means performance ratings received for the review period ending March 31, 2016. Employees with performance ratings of “outstanding” will receive $700 bonus payments and employees with ratings of “good” or “very good” will receive payments of $475. Employees with ratings below “good” and employees with any active disciplinary actions as of October 1, 2016 will not receive this bonus. The following criteria also apply to these merit bonus payments:
- To be eligible, employees must be in a permanent full or part-time SHRA position with a hire date on or before January 1, 2016. Permanent part-time employees will receive pro-rated bonus amounts based on their work schedules.
- Employees separated from state service prior to the last day of the pay period in which the payments are disbursed (October 15, 2016 for our campus) will not receive this bonus payment.
- Employees on leaves of absence during the time of the most recent performance appraisal will be rated upon their return and before June 30, 2017 to be eligible for the bonus payment.
- EHRA: Eligible EHRA faculty and EHRA non-faculty employees may be awarded merit-based bonuses, based exclusively on individual employee job performance considerations as determined by their direct supervisors and approved by respective departmental and divisional leadership. Total bonuses awarded may not exceed a 1.0% total bonus pool for each university division. Worksheets will be distributed to each division for use in reporting all awarded merit bonuses for processing. Further instruction and reporting timelines will be provided with the worksheets. The following criteria apply to these EHRA bonus payments:
- To be eligible, employees must be in a full or part-time permanent position and must have at least six (6) months of active employment with the University as of October 1, 2016.
- Bonuses will not be awarded to employees in receipt of an end-of-appointment notice or working a final notice as of the date these merit bonuses are paid (October 31, 2016).
- No individual merit bonus may exceed 2.0% of the employee’s base salary and no individual bonus may exceed $2,500 regardless of the percentage.
Please contact Cindy Harper (harperce@appstate.edu or 6487) or Mark Bachmeier (bachmeiermd@appstate.edu or 6482) in Human Resources with any additional questions you may have.