August Guest Speaker: Marshall Parks, Director of Human Resources

Discussion item #1: Fair Labor Standards Act and New Overtime Rules

• New ruling on paying overtime; new policy must be implemented by December 1, 2016
  • Minimum yearly earnings to be eligible for OT have increased from $22269 to $47476
  • HR identified all exempt positions with salaries at or below new federal minimum
  • HR will notify individuals via letter explaining eligibility for OT pay
  • HR will identify other positions with yearly salaries higher than minimum to perform “duties tests” to determine OT eligibility
    • Duty Exemptions (will be completed by the end of September 2016):
      • Executive
      • Professional
      • Administrative
    • Will be notified via letter
  • Compensation Time will still be an option
    • The maximum compensation time will be 280 hours

Discussion item #2: Banding Project Update

• 125 staff identified as being under their minimum (considered 1^stpriority)
• 30% of total distribution pool will be used to bring these 125 up; tier system in use to determine increases
• All Exempt staff received a minimum 2% increase
• UNC has dedicated $4.7 million to salary increases over the last 5 years
• Next steps include identifying criteria for increases; such as merit, longevity, etc

Question:

With Banding in place, will UNC get to the point of consistently posting salaries on position announcements—rather than not posting any salary info, posting a salary range, etc?

Response:

HR would prefer this be the case; unfortunately, it is not mandated and is up to the individual hiring authorities.

Question: 

Is there a plan to address the salary compression that is now taking place

Response:

Yes; HR is aware that compression is becoming an issue and does plan to address it; however, nothing concrete has been decided at this time.

Discussion item #3: Health Insurance

• UNC is part of CHEIBA (Colorado Higher Education Insurance Benefits Alliance)
  • Consists of 9 Colorado institutions and roughly 8,000 employees
  • UNC has been a member for the last 20 years
• 2017  Insurance rates will be set in September
• Insurance rates increase nationally roughly 10.5%
  • UNC’s are around 5%
  • The prediction for 2017 is around 3-4%
    • Equates to about $8-9 per person.
• CHEIBA is looking at “Grand Rounds”
  • In simple terms, this is where a patient would see all specialists during a single visit—rather than seeing one doctor, and receiving referrals to see various other doctors at another time.

Question:

Can we anticipate a premium holiday this year?

Response:

UNC will know more in October; stay tuned