Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 68.84
Liaison Natalie Sobrinski
Submission Date June 6, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Muhlenberg College
PA-11: Employee Compensation

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.60 / 3.00 Anne Speck
Vice President of Human Resources
Human Resources
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

The local living wage (based on a family of four and expressed as an hourly wage):
15.78 US/Canadian $

Percentage of all employees (regular full-time, regular part-time, and temporary workers) that receive a living wage (benefits excluded):
85

Does the institution have employees of contractors that work on-site as part of regular and ongoing campus operations?:
Yes

Percentage of employees of contractors that work on-site as part of regular and ongoing campus operations that the institution has verified as receiving a living wage (benefits excluded) (0-100; enter ‘0’ if unknown):
25

The total compensation provided to the institution’s lowest paid regular (i.e., permanent) employee or pay grade meets or exceeds what percentage of the living wage?:
100 percent

A brief description of the minimum total compensation provided to the institution’s lowest paid employee or pay grade, including any in-kind benefits included as part of the total compensation figure :

Current starting pay rate of lowest regular employee is $11.80/hour; value of the health insurance benefit is $3.06/hr, retirement contribution is 10% of salary so a minimum of $1.1.8/hour. Thus minimum total compensation would be $16.04/hr


Has the institution made a formal commitment to pay a living wage?:
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A copy or brief description of the institution’s written policy stating its commitment to a living wage:

While the institution has no formal commitment to paying a living wage, the goal of Muhlenberg’s Compensation Policy is to provide “competitive” compensation. However, this compensation policy does help to ensure that 85% of employees are provided a living wage considering salary alone, and 100% of full-time regular employees are earning total compensation exceeding living wage.


Has the institution made a formal commitment to provide a living wage to its student employees and/or graduate teaching/research assistants (e.g. by adopting a student bill-of-rights)?:
No

A brief description of the institution’s commitment to a student living wage:

No, many student employees receive $8.00/hour(or at least start at $8.00/hr), so there is no formal commitment to providing a living wage for student employees


The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Dining Services currently has 183 employees. 46 (25%) are paid above $15.78. Sodexo is the only on-site contractor that Muhlenberg utilizes. There are 183 Sodexo employees, which includes full-time, part-time, and student employees. Student employees start at $8.00 and Student Interns $10.00. To make sure its employees receive sustainable compensation, Sodexo North America’s human resources department uses a wage matrix. A wage matrix is a system where the starting wages of employees are gaged using average wages of employees of other companies with similar positions in the same geographic area. This way, Sodexo can offer competitive wages to avoid losing talent to other businesses in the industry. Also, all employees’ wages are increased by roughly 3% annually so their purchasing power can keep up with inflation.

The College has adopted a compensation philosophy, approved by the Compensation Committee of the Board of Trustees, that aims to pay competitive salaries and provide comprehensive affordable benefits to all employees. We compare salaries using CompData local survey (both state and local data) including standards within the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges(LVAIC).
Salary information:
Regular, full-time employees
Housekeeping staff are the lowest hourly paid regular full-time employees. Start rate is $11.80/hour, $24,544/year; Benefits for this position would include: health insurance coverage (with a payroll deduction within the Affordable Care Act guidelines); reimbursement of $400 of the individual $500 in-network deductible annually (all eligible employees making less than $32,000/yr get $400 of the $500 in-network deductible reimbursed); tuition scholarship plan which includes full tuition coverage for dependents to attend Muhlenberg after the employee has two years of service; employer-paid life insurance and long-term disability plans; retirement accounts funded at 10% of salary per year with no employee contribution required for all full-time employees after two years of service.
Regular, part-time employees(same)
This would be part-time LSC desk staff, $8.37/hour. Part-timers have no benefits unless working 800+ hours/year (at 800 hours they get pro-rated vacation), or 1000+ hours/year (at 1000 hours they get the college retirement contribution).
Temporary (non-regular) staff
Same pay rates as above, Temporary employees are not eligible for benefits.
Temporary (non-regular, adjunct or contingent) faculty
Part-time/temporary/adjunct faculty are paid per course, and are not eligible for benefits. An adjunct for a regular one unit class is paid $4,340/course. This exceeds the living wage on an hourly basis.
Student employees
Minimum wage

The information reported is accurate to the knowledge of:
Peter Stark, Operations Manager of Campus Dining, peterstark@muhlenberg.edu
John Pasquarello, General Manager of Campus Dining, johnpasquarello@muhlenberg.edu
Anne Speck, Vice President of Human Resources, annespeck@muhlenberg.edu


Dining Services currently has 183 employees. 46 (25%) are paid above $15.78. Sodexo is the only on-site contractor that Muhlenberg utilizes. There are 183 Sodexo employees, which includes full-time, part-time, and student employees. Student employees start at $8.00 and Student Interns $10.00. To make sure its employees receive sustainable compensation, Sodexo North America’s human resources department uses a wage matrix. A wage matrix is a system where the starting wages of employees are gaged using average wages of employees of other companies with similar positions in the same geographic area. This way, Sodexo can offer competitive wages to avoid losing talent to other businesses in the industry. Also, all employees’ wages are increased by roughly 3% annually so their purchasing power can keep up with inflation.

The College has adopted a compensation philosophy, approved by the Compensation Committee of the Board of Trustees, that aims to pay competitive salaries and provide comprehensive affordable benefits to all employees. We compare salaries using CompData local survey (both state and local data) including standards within the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges(LVAIC).
Salary information:
Regular, full-time employees
Housekeeping staff are the lowest hourly paid regular full-time employees. Start rate is $11.80/hour, $24,544/year; Benefits for this position would include: health insurance coverage (with a payroll deduction within the Affordable Care Act guidelines); reimbursement of $400 of the individual $500 in-network deductible annually (all eligible employees making less than $32,000/yr get $400 of the $500 in-network deductible reimbursed); tuition scholarship plan which includes full tuition coverage for dependents to attend Muhlenberg after the employee has two years of service; employer-paid life insurance and long-term disability plans; retirement accounts funded at 10% of salary per year with no employee contribution required for all full-time employees after two years of service.
Regular, part-time employees(same)
This would be part-time LSC desk staff, $8.37/hour. Part-timers have no benefits unless working 800+ hours/year (at 800 hours they get pro-rated vacation), or 1000+ hours/year (at 1000 hours they get the college retirement contribution).
Temporary (non-regular) staff
Same pay rates as above, Temporary employees are not eligible for benefits.
Temporary (non-regular, adjunct or contingent) faculty
Part-time/temporary/adjunct faculty are paid per course, and are not eligible for benefits. An adjunct for a regular one unit class is paid $4,340/course. This exceeds the living wage on an hourly basis.
Student employees
Minimum wage

The information reported is accurate to the knowledge of:
Peter Stark, Operations Manager of Campus Dining, peterstark@muhlenberg.edu
John Pasquarello, General Manager of Campus Dining, johnpasquarello@muhlenberg.edu
Anne Speck, Vice President of Human Resources, annespeck@muhlenberg.edu

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.