To all Mason faculty and staff:
As you may know, the Virginia Assembly recently passed a state budget that includes an average 5 percent increase in base compensation for all state employees for each of the next two years. I am writing to give you an update on the process Mason will follow to distribute this year’s additional funds.
I want to begin by thanking each of you for your important contributions to Mason over the last year, as our university community continued to face such significant challenges. I am very pleased that the General Assembly and the Governor approved this increase for state employees. I know how hard you work to keep this university operating so successfully.
Across-the-board increase
Mason will follow its standard procedure of distributing increases across the board to classified staff, as governed by the General Assembly and Department of Human Resource Management.
For all employees, a current, satisfactory performance evaluation is required to receive any increase.
For IR and administrative faculty, we will suspend our standard practice of scaling increases based on performance and market factors for this year only, and instead allocate an across-the-board, 5 percent increase for all who qualify. We are taking this action for two reasons. First, current inflation is estimated at a 40-year high of 9.1 percent. And second, the late timing of state budget decisions, coupled with the timing of when performance reviews are traditionally conducted at Mason, preclude us from processing variable salary adjustments without creating unacceptably late delays. The timing of when performance evaluations are conducted at Mason will change next year to bring these two factors into sync.
One-time bonus
In addition to this year’s 5 percent increase, all employees will also receive a one-time state-allocated $1,000 bonus in December. It will carry qualifying criteria, which we will provide at a later date.
FAQs and other additional information will be available shortly at hr.gmu.edu, and via email. Watch your inbox for messages from Human Resources.
Sincerely,
Gregory Washington
President