Faculty and Staff - June 17, 2019

Dear Colleagues,

As many of you already know, the State of South Carolina recently approved salary increases for some state employees. For Winthrop, this means the following:

FOR CLASSIFIED EMPLOYEES

·All Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) nonexempt employees in classified state positions who were hired before June 1, 2019, will receive a 2% general increase in their base pay starting with the paycheck received on July 1, 2019. 

·All FLSA exempt employees in classified state positions who were hired before June 16, 2019, will receive a 2% general increase in their base pay starting with the paycheck received on July 1, 2019.

Employees whose jobs are governed by the FLSA are either "exempt" or "nonexempt." Nonexempt employees are entitled to overtime pay. Exempt employees are not. The easy way to think about exempt and nonexempt is to consider whether you complete a timesheet. If you do, you are nonexempt. If you do not, you are exempt. The difference in the effective dates mentioned above is because nonexempt employees are paid on a one pay period lag from exempt employees.

FOR UNCLASSIFIED EMPLOYEES WHOSE BASE SALARY IS LESS THAN $100,000

·All employees in unclassified state positions who were hired before June 16, 2019, and whose base salary is less than $100,000 will receive a 2% general increase in the base pay received on July 1, 2019, UNLESS the employee’s performance for the 2018-19 fiscal year was not satisfactory.

At Winthrop the vast majority of unclassified employees are faculty.  Employees who have a question about whether or not they are unclassified or whether they will receive the increase should speak with their supervisor. If you are an unclassified employee whose base salary is $100,000 or more, you are not eligible for an increase. Supervisors should have notified employees at this point if they will not receive the general increase due to performance; otherwise, employees may assume that they will receive the increase.

FOR GRANT EMPLOYEES

·Employees in grant FTE positions are not eligible for the general increase, but vice presidents may work with the grant principal investigator to assign salary increases to those employees in a manner consistent with the general increase guidelines and criteria. Grant resources would have to be used to fund salary increases for grant employees.

BONUS TO BE RECEIVED IN OCTOBER/NOVEMBER

·Employees in regular FTE positions whose salary is less than $70,000, and who were employed prior to January 1, 2019, will receive a one-time lump-sum bonus of $600 in October or November 2019.  More specific information regarding the bonus will be communicated at a later date.

I am pleased to be able to share this information with you. If you have questions, please contact your supervisor first, then the Office of Human Resources, Employee Diversity and Wellness. As always, I thank you for all that you do for Winthrop.

Sincerely,

Dan