Frequently Asked Questions

LMU is undertaking an effort to move the competitive positioning of salary ranges for faculty and staff from the market 50th percentile (median) to the market 75th percentile. This is a higher position relative to others in the market related to pay.

One factor that goes into the compensation decision-making process is the competitive market position for pay. In other words, it’s about how we want to compare to other employers in the market. With this initiative, LMU is implementing salary ranges (described later in the FAQs) that will be anchored around the market 75th percentile, versus the market 50th percentile. This higher market position will mean a higher pay opportunity for faculty and staff going forward.

LMU has historically targeted the market 50th percentile for both faculty and staff compensation. This is typically where most organizations position their pay. However, LMU has decided to target a higher percentile in the market going forward to ensure our ability to attract and retain talent to support the university in our overall goals and ambitions. This higher targeted position, in combination with LMU’s full faculty and staff experience, which is aligned with our mission, will make us a stronger competitor for talent in the market. LMU will utilize the salary range to pay around the 75^th percentile based on experience, competencies, contributions and performance.

We completed our Year 1 review of tenure-line faculty positions, and staff positions will be addressed as of Sept. 29. Term and part-time (Non-Tenure Track) faculty will be addressed in Year 2 (2025) of our multi-year strategy. Please note that tenure-line faculty and staff positions will continue to be reviewed in Year 2 and beyond.

Not every LMU staff or faculty member will see a market adjustment in 2024, but many will. As an institution, we are using the budget this year to target those whose pay is lowest in the new salary ranges to determine market adjustments. As noted earlier, this is a multi-year process. In the upcoming years, faculty and staff may receive further pay adjustments, including market adjustments in 2024 and beyond, to align their pay within their new range. 

Yes. Annual Merit Increases (AMI) are annual pay increases awarded based on a variety of influences:

• The university budget
• Availability of funds within a college or school
• Individual performance

Each college, school, or department is responsible for determining the annual distribution of AMI for their staff and faculty. 

Important: The market adjustments are separate and distinct from AMI increases. As noted previously, market adjustments are primarily focused on those staff and faculty members who are lowest in the new salary ranges. A staff or faculty member who does not receive a market adjustment is still eligible for an AMI increase.

Experience is one of the defining factors when considering where a faculty or staff member should ultimately be positioned within the salary range. As part of the implementation process, managers will be considering the appropriateness of current positioning within the salary range based on experience.

The funds for this initiative have been determined at the university level. Funding for each college/department/school will be determined based on a consistent implementation approach applied to each. Actual funding for a college/department/school may vary based on the relative position of staff and faculty within the new salary ranges. For example, a college/department/school with more staff and faculty members who are very low in their new salary ranges may receive a higher funding level than a college/department/school with staff and faculty members who are higher in the new salary ranges.

The compensation initiative is focused on aligning LMU’s salary ranges with the competitive market 75th percentile. Organizations make pay decisions relative to the competitive market to ensure that they are not paying too much or too little to attract and retain faculty and staff. There are some differences in market competitive pay by academic discipline and job families. Academic disciplines and job families that have comparable market rates will be in the same salary range grouping.

Participants were selected to serve on both subcommittees by university leadership and members of the Faculty Senate and Staff Senate. In the case of the staff subcommittee, representatives were also selected from key areas of the university that have the largest number of staff members.

A salary grade represents the salary range for a job at LMU. Salary ranges are built based on a competitive market rate for each job. They reflect the full range of market competitive pay for staff and faculty members in jobs assigned to the range. This includes new hires and still-developing staff and faculty all the way to those who are highly experienced and top contributors in their jobs. For instance, a salary range for a job might be $60,000 as the minimum and extend to $90,000 as the maximum. Actual positioning within the salary range will be dependent upon experience, demonstrated competency, and performance.

Each staff job was mapped to a specific grade based on market data. Specifically, we assigned staff jobs to a salary grade based on the salary range with the closest midpoint to the market 75th data for their job. As a result, staff jobs with similar market 75^th data are grouped together in the same salary grade. Please note that we reviewed the grades for each staff job carefully to ensure external market data did not significantly deviate from internal reporting relationships.

The approach to build the new salary ranges, anchored to market data, is similar in approach to our previous ranges. However, our new salary ranges are anchored to the market 75th percentile, which means LMU’s staff salary ranges are set higher than most of its peers. Our new salary ranges use a different numbering scheme than our previous salary ranges. Even though your grade changed, your job is not changing. The salary grade transition has no effect on your role, title, authority, duties and/or responsibilities.

We have further divided our salary ranges for LMU going forward by thirds, or terciles. A tercile is simply a statistical measure that divides a dataset into three equal parts, each representing one-third of the data. This means that the salary range will be split into three parts, with each part representing one-third of the data. Managers and staff/faculty will receive guidance about the types of experience, demonstrated competencies, and performance ideally represented by staff and faculty aligned to each of the thirds, or terciles.

Since we are moving from salary ranges anchored around the market 50th percentile to those anchored around the 75th percentile, faculty and staff pay is lower in the new salary range than where they would be paid in ranges anchored to the 50th percentile. As we are in Year 1 of a multi-year implementation period, many of our faculty and staff will be paid in the first tercile. Over time, we expect more faculty and staff to move further into the first and even into the second and third terciles. It will take time to move all faculty and staff to their most appropriate positioning within the new salary ranges.

This initiative does not include cost-of-living pay increases. Cost-of-living refers to the relative cost of living in one location versus another and is often measured by the price of food, housing, taxes, healthcare, transportation, and entertainment. 

Cost-of-labor refers to the going rate for jobs in a particular market. Although there is a strong correlation between cost-of-living and cost-of-labor, higher cost-of-living areas tend to have a higher cost-of-labor. The two are distinct and are addressed differently by employers. 

Like most employers, LMU takes into account the cost-of-labor as a factor in our compensation strategy and design. This helps ensure that salaries remain competitive in the job market while taking into consideration the personal spending of our faculty and staff. Although cost-of-labor and cost-of-living have both increased in recent years, they do not always correlate directly; in years when cost-of-living is low, cost-of-labor may increase. 

The one exception to the pure focus on cost-of-labor is that LMU will establish a new wage minimum for all full-time university staff at $21.68 per hour ($45,100 annual salary), which aligns with the Los Angeles County Living Wage Program. 

Our compensation philosophy and the mechanics of our compensation program are based on these factors:

• Market-based pay studies and surveys (reflecting cost-of-labor by job)
• Experience, competencies/skills, and performance
• Internal equity

A: The following lists organizations selected as comparators for pay. This means we gather data from published survey sources that include these comparable organizations. 

The comparators are those with whom LMU competes for core talent, plus universities that are comparable in size, classification, and/or mission to improve the robustness of data samples. We also select a strong sample of comparators in high-cost areas (e.g., San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Boston).

LMU will regularly review and adjust the list of competitors to ensure it reflects the current talent market and is aligned with organizations in similar labor markets.

• Baylor University
• Belmont University
• Bentley University
• Butler University
• Case Western Reserve University
• Creighton University
• DePaul University
• Drexel University
• Duquesne University
• Gonzaga University
• Iona College
• Lehigh University
• Loyola University Chicago
• Loyola University Maryland
• Mercer University
• Northeastern University
• Pepperdine University
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Saint Joseph's University
• Saint Mary's College of California
• Santa Clara University
• Seattle University
• Seton Hall University
• Southern Methodist University
• St. John's University-New York
• Syracuse University
• Texas Christian University
• The Catholic University of America
• Trinity University
• Tulane University of Louisiana
• University of Dayton
• University of Denver
• University of Miami
• University of Portland
• University of San Diego
• University of San Francisco
• University of St Thomas
• University of Tulsa
• Xavier University

LMU compares to both higher education, as well as cross-industry, organizations for staff compensation.  We use reputable third-party data sources to gather market data reflective of our market for talent and the cost of labor in the Los Angeles area.  For jobs specific to higher education, we use higher-education surveys with institutions of similar size and complexity to LMU.  For staff jobs that may also be hired from general industry (i.e., IT, facilities, etc.), we blend cross-industry with higher education-specific data. The new staff salary ranges reflect market data from these sources.

Each faculty and staff member will be able to see the salary range for their job in year 1. This information can be found on Workday and/or on the annual merit statement. During the upcoming years of our Initiative, we will partner with LMU leadership, Human Resources, and the Compensation Initiative staff committee to select an appropriate time and manner to share more about the salary structures, as well as detail on career opportunities and links to pay.