Compensation and Annual Employee Increases

Employee Raises: What is CEC?

The Idaho State Legislature is responsible for the distribution of public funds, in coordination with the Division of Financial Management (DFM) and Division of Human Resources (DHR). Each year, the legislature votes to:

• Determine whether State of Idaho employees will receive pay raises, and
• Define some structure as to how those raises will be implemented.  

The State of Idaho refers to these compensation adjustments as the Change in Employee Compensation, or CEC.

Once legislation is approved, the State of Idaho Division of Human Resources (DHR) and Division of Financial Management (DFM) develop CEC implementation guidance for state agencies to distribute state appropriated funding. From there, ISU leadership prepares an annual distribution plan to maximize compensation goals and drivers based upon legislative requirements, implementation guidance from DHR/DFM, and available appropriated and institutional funding.

For Fiscal Year 2025 (FY2025), the Legislature approved a 1% across the board increase, an average 2% increase for eligible employees to be distributed on the basis of merit and compa-ratio/market rate, plus the implementation of payline shifts for new salary structures for specific DHR identified IT/Engineering and Nursing/Healthcare classified positions. In addition, ISU is implementing other compensation components based on HR best practices, considering impacts such as merit and market competitiveness among employee groups, salary compression, and maximizing available resources.

The FY2025 Idaho State University Annual Compensation Plan includes the components outlined below:

• Pay structure shift and minimum rates of pay
• Pay structure shift of ISU Classified pay grades and the minimum rate of pay increase from $14.75/hr to $15.00/hr
• Adjustments to Classified minimums for specific positions based on new salary structures for IT/Engineering and Nursing/Healthcare classified roles
• Adjustment to Non-Classified minimum annual salary from $46,050 to $47,325 based on the FY2025 increase to DHR Classified pay grade K minimum as required by State code
• 1% Across the Board increase for all eligible employees with a start date on or before the relevant date of implementation for their employee category
• Average 2% Market and Performance-based Merit Increase, distributed based on matrix values

• Academic promotion/advancement in rank for applicable Faculty

NOTE: To be eligible for a performance-based CEC increase, the State of Idaho DHR requires that employees must have a performance review on file and have completed their required 2023 Respectful Workplace and 2024 Cyber Security training.