College Employees Make Good Grades, Earn Higher Pay

Education Pays: While merit raises and other pay remained flat across many industries, employees at the nation’s colleges and universities made out quite well in 2006. According to Watson Wyatt Data Services, 92 percent of institutions handed out salary increases, with about 96 percent of employees receiving some form of additional remuneration. (It makes one wonder how the other 4 percent must feel about being left out of the largess.) The average pay increase is 3.8 percent. Nearly 61 percent of higher education organizations plan to increase salary-range midpoints in 2008, also by 3.8 percent. Not surprisingly, nearly all surveyed institutions provide some form of tuition assistance to employees. The Watson Wyatt data was culled from responses of 113 U.S. institutions, totaling about 35,000 people.