SP 3-45a – Employee Compensation

SP 3-45a

APPROVED: May 14, 2025
EFFECTIVE: May 14, 2025

REFERENCE(S): Board Policy (BP) 3-45, Employee Compensation

APPROVED:

/ Joe Garcia /
Joseph A. Garcia, Chancellor

Application

This procedure applies to all non-classified positions within the Colorado Community College System, including its Colleges (CCCS or System), as defined in BP 3-10, Administration of Personnel. The compensation practices for Classified employees are defined in Colorado Revised Statute and by the State of Colorado Department of Personnel Board Rules and Personnel Director’s Administrative Procedures.

Basis

This procedure establishes the guidelines for salary placement and salary adjustments for eligible CCCS employees. CCCS is committed to compliance with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations for compensating employees.

Definitions

“Cost-of-Living Adjustment”: An increase in pay that is associated with the rising cost of goods and services.

“Equity Adjustment”: Adjustments to compensation made to correct salary differences that are not the result of differing qualifications, tenure, performance, and other legally permitted factors.

“Essential Personnel”: Overtime eligible employees designated by the Appointing Authority, or their designee, as required to report to work when a campus is otherwise closed in order to maintain operations, safety, or facility infrastructure. Paid leave for essential personnel shall count as time worked in calculating overtime.

“Market Adjustments”: Adjustments to compensation based on an evaluation of external compensation data for like positions with similar job duties, scope, and complexity.

“Merit Increase”: Performance based salary adjustments. Merit increases can be base building or non-base building payments.

“Salary Compression”: Increases to compensation that may occur when there is little difference in salary between employees regardless of differences in their respective experience, qualifications, or scope and responsibility.

“Salary Inversion”: Increases to compensation that may occur when new employees are paid more than employees in similarly situated positions with greater tenure and/or experience.

“Salary Pool”: A percentage of budget established for salary increases for a group of employees.

“Standard Work Week”: The standard workweek for CCCS begins Saturday at 12:00 am and ends the following Friday at 11:59 pm.

Procedure

Each College and the System Office is responsible for the implementation of consistent and appropriate compensation practices that assist in attracting, motivating, and retaining qualified faculty and staff. Human resources offices are responsible for ensuring the application of compensation practices promote equity across their institution and are in line with all applicable compensation laws, rules, and regulations.

No positions shall be paid below the Federal or State of Colorado minimum wage, whichever is higher, including when increases are implemented during a fiscal year. Evaluations of salary are separate from, but a component of, human resource’s evaluation of a position’s classification and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime status.

Positions identified as eligible for overtime (non-exempt) shall require timely and accurate completion of a timesheet by employees and review and approval by the supervisor or supervisor’s proxy. Employees in non-exempt positions who work more than forty hours in a CCCS standard work week shall be paid overtime in accordance with applicable FLSA regulations and CCCS overtime business practices. Overtime may be granted in the form of compensatory time. Except for employees identified as essential, paid leave does not count as time worked toward overtime.

Employees may not have a combination of overtime exempt and non-exempt positions within the System at the same time. Employees in overtime exempt positions may be eligible for additional assignments, such as teaching or other non-instructional academic work, outside of their regular position duties. Payment for additional assignments shall be in accordance with the College’s or System Office’s applicable pay schedule for similarly situated positions where the work is being performed. Work on additional assignments must be completed when the employee is not receiving regular pay for another position and are subject to all applicable workload limits.

Compensation Plans:
System Human Resources, in coordination with the College Human Resources Directors, will establish CCCS pay plans, aligned to the CCCS position classifications. CCCS pay plans will be adjusted annually with consideration of the annually approved salary pool and budgets, and undergo a more comprehensive review against market comparisons at least every four years.

The CCCS pay plans are designed to be guides for establishing the range in which positions in the same classification are compensated across the System. Colleges and the System Office should compensate positions within their applicable classification range, as budgets allow. Colleges and the System Office may establish individual practices for varying compensation for like positions within the classification ranges in an equitable and consistent manner. College and System Office compensation practices, including eligibility and application of salary placements and adjustments, shall be documented.

Colleges and the System Office are responsible for establishing applicable compensation plans for instructors, temporary staff, and student workers. Compensation shall be based on the job duties and responsibilities of the position and equitable among similarly situated positions with similar job duties and levels of responsibility.

Salary Placement:
Colleges and the System Office shall consider internal equity with current employees in similar positions when identifying a starting salary for a new hire or employee moving into a new position. In accordance with Colorado Revised Statutes, prior wage history is not a reliable factor to justify differences in compensation among similarly situated positions and employees. As such, an individual’s salary history shall not be considered in establishing their starting salary for a new position. Regardless of funding source or budget availability, individuals in the same institution performing substantially similar work can only be paid differently based upon one of the following reasons:

Salary Adjustments:
Each College and the System Office shall develop and make available to eligible employees the criteria for salary adjustments. Salary adjustments may be base building or non-base building and shall be subject to available budget.

Base Building — Base building increases require an ongoing salary commitment. These increases may include adjustments for cost of living, equity, market, compression, inversion, increased competency or education directly related to the individual’s position, increased responsibility, promotional opportunities, or merit.

Non-Base Building — Non-base building payments do not require an ongoing salary commitment and may be one time or for an established amount of time. These payments may include temporary pay differentials for special projects, additional assignments, or incentive payments for high performance, special accomplishments, or other recognitions. Colleges and the System Office are responsible for evaluating the PERA eligibility for non-base building payments and processing correctly through payroll.

Annual Salary Adjustments:
Each year the Chancellor recommends to the Board a salary pool as part of the annual budget setting process. Individual Colleges or the System Office may request approval from the Chancellor for alternative salary pools to address budget constraints or internal College goals for compensation. The Board approves the individual Colleges’ and System Office’s budgets during its annual approval process. Annual salary increases may be applied as cost of living and/or performance-based increases and may be base building, non-base building, or a combination with a preference given to base building increases. Differentiation in the application of salary pools by relevant employee types may be applied in accordance with established College or System Office processes.

Supplemental Pay:
As budget allows, additional pay may be provided to employees who are temporarily assuming major responsibilities for the duties of a vacant position or that is higher than that of their current position or for performing services beyond their assigned job duties (e.g., special projects, short-term work). Such assumed responsibility is typically in addition to the employee’s primary job duties. The additional pay is non-base building and shall be PERA includable. The amount is to be determined in accordance with the College or System Office compensation practices. In accordance with Colorado Revised Statutes, pay for an assignment that exceeds nine months in duration requires a job posting.

Discretionary incentives are one-time, non-base building, flat dollar amount payments that may be provided to employees for special recognition and reward for exceptional performance, significant contributions, or substantial accomplishments beyond normal or regular work responsibilities. Colleges and the System Office are responsible for establishing guidelines for eligibility and application of discretionary incentives and determination of PERA eligibility and processing.

Colleges and the System Office may provide on-call pay for employees whose personal time is restricted when they are required to be available for emergencies and respond at unusual hours outside of their regularly scheduled work hours. Overtime eligible employees who are also eligible for on-call pay may be eligible for call back pay. Call back pay identifies a minimum number of hours an employee will be paid at their regular hourly rate when they are required to return to work outside of their regularly scheduled work hours. All on-call and call back structures must be documented and clearly communicated to eligible employees.

Revising this Procedure

CCCS reserves the right to change any provision or requirement of this procedure at any time and the change shall become effective immediately.