Human Resources

Annual Pay Increases

Across-the-Board Increases

Each year as a part of the budgeting process, the college designates a salary increase pool, to be distributed on July 1, the first day of the new fiscal year. All regular employees are eligible for the college’s across-the-board salary increase.

Merit Increases

For merit increases in July 2023, if a regular employee started before January 1, 2023, they will also be eligible for a merit increase. Each year, every VP/dean is allocated a merit increase budget. Supervisors and directors nominate employees for merit increases and VP/deans review all the recommendations and then decide how to allocate their pools.

Merit increases are competitive and it is not uncommon to be awarded a merit increase one year, but receive no merit increase or a smaller increase the following year.

Because there is a fixed pool for merit increases, whether or not you get a merit increase in a given year depends on how many others in your VP/dean group will be awarded a merit increase.

Simply doing your job well is not enough to earn a merit increase. That is what is expected of all Reed employees. Merit increases are reserved for those who consistently do more than what’s listed in their job description, in service to Reed and its students.

Criteria for merit increases:

  • Must have met or made significant progress on individual goals.
  • Must foster equity and inclusion in their role on campus.
  • Must be an active and contributing member of the Reed community.
  • May have taken on significant new responsibilities during the past year.

Awarding merit increases is a process that is particularly susceptible to favoritism, which is a form of bias. Leaders who award merit increases must take careful steps to defeat their biases.