Dickinson College
PAE-11: Sustainable Compensation

Human Resource Services launched the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and compensation review with a request to the campus to update all non-faculty job descriptions in May 2006. Approximately 500 descriptions were reviewed for compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The review focused on whether existing positions satisfied both a salary test and a duties test to be considered as exempt from the overtime provisions of the Act. The salary test requires that a position must be paid a salary of at least $455 per week or $23,660 per year. This stipulation must be met even if the position is considered exempt from the Act by the nature of the duties. The duties test allows exemptions for positions considered to be executive, administrative or professional.

The results of the review indicate that a small number of positions required further analysis and possible action on the part of the college. Eight of the positions considered as exempt did not pass the salary test. In addition, the existing exempt or non-exempt designations of twenty other positions required further analysis. The majority of these positions are non-exempt positions which could be designated as being exempt in accordance with the Act. Only a few positions designated as exempt were changed to non-exempt.

In addition, the compensation levels of non-exempt jobs were compared to the local labor market. Dickinson positions were compared to the local salary survey data which is reviewed annually by Human Resource Services and local salary survey data provided by Smart Associates, consultants hired during the time of the review (NOTE: ERI has provided local salary data since the review has occurred). The results indicated that the current salaries of Dickinson non-exempt job titles are competitive with salaries paid by local area employers. This does not take into account the College’s attractive benefit program.
In July 2007, a new pay plan was implemented for support staff (non-exempt) employees of the College. This included a reconfiguration of the pay structure in order to establish more competitive hiring rates. The lowest minimum rate for regular budgeted positions increased from $6.80 per hour to $8.50 per hour. This placed the hiring rates for these positions well above the change in Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $7.15 per hour which took effect on July 1, 2007.

The hiring rates of support staff salaries increased more than six percent compared to the local market between 2006-2007 and 2008-2009. In addition, actual rates of pay compared to the local market increased from 101.5 percent to 104.9 percent.

As the increase in Pennsylvania’s minimum wage led to the lowest minimum rate for regular budgeted positions to increase to $8.50, the College realized this was going to cause a compression issue for those positions not impacted by the minimum wage increase. Therefore, $125,000 was provided to alleviate such compression.