FAQ: Compensation Study at Russell Sage College

Benchmarks were set based on data from 80 peer institutions, with the aggregated data and band classifications (Professional 1, etc.) reviewed by the Compensation Committee, which included representation of faculty and staff from both institutions.

Compensation bands were based on job duties and benchmarks and not on job titles.

Division leaders mapped roles to their appropriate bands. 

Bringing every employee into their designated compensation band was prioritized at an investment of approximately $1 million. If your current salary is below the band minimum, your pay will increase in two stages to bring you up to band by July 1, 2027. The first bump, 50% of the amount needed to bring the employee into band, will happen in the first pay period of October 2026 with the remaining 50% being added in July 2027.

Changing compensation within a band happens through the raise pool. You can change bands if you change jobs within the university that are in another band classification. 

As part of the compensation process and philosophy, these compensation bands will be re-evaluated every few years to address market shifts.

All employees whose current salaries are already in band will receive a flat $250 bonus in October in appreciation of their contributions during this transition period. This is our signal to you that we know salaries need ongoing attention. We are committed to investing in compensation for everyone on an annual basis going forward.

We are switching to 37.5 hours for employees of the merged university in July 2027. Union employees will remain at 40 hours. 

For now, hours of operation will remain the same. Formal working hours beginning July 1, 2027, will be announced within the next several months.

Current Russell Sage employees will continue to accrue vacation and sick time and receive personal days. ACPHS has traditionally frontloaded time in July. For July 2027, we will frontload vacation and sick time for current ACPHS employees at the same amount they received in July 2026 and add personal days consistent with the Russell Sage policy. At the same time, current ACPHS employees will begin to accrue for July 2028 following the current Russell Sage policy. 

We are still finalizing negotiations with our benefit providers and will share more over the course of the fall semester.

We’ve selected CDPHP for medical, Express Scripts (ESI) for prescriptions, and Guardian for vision, dental, and ancillary benefits. Plan design and options available under those carriers are still being worked out. We will share updates over the course of the fall semester, including numerous information sessions for employees before the Open Enrollment in late October/early November. The new benefits program will begin on January 1, 2027.

Russell Sage employees will continue to receive their current tuition benefits. Current ACPHS employees will now receive the Russell Sage employee tuition benefits, which current ACPHS employees can find on ADP.

Compensation and hours for union employees have been negotiated separately through the collective bargaining process. Union employees will remain at a 40-hour workweek.

No. The roles and compensation offered in the letters are also tied to the new fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2027.

If your letter contains administrative errors (such as an incorrect job title, spelling mistake, or another clerical error), contact Human Resources immediately at HR@sage.edu or HumanResources@acphs.edu, or speak with your direct supervisor.

No. Signing the letter confirms that you have received your role assignment and compensation details for July 2027 and indicates your interest in the position. It is not an employment contract and does not restrict your rights or obligations.

You can return your signed letter via email to HR@sage.edu or HumanResources@acphs.edu, or deliver a physical copy to your campus Human Resources office by the end of the day on Tuesday, September 22.

In cases where an employee is offered a different role at the merged institution, their salary may have changed. These discussions have been had prior to the distribution of letters. 

We are in the early stages of designing that process now. When it opens in early 2027, supervisors and employees will be able to submit a request for a review of a position's classification. Reviews will focus primarily on positions where job duties have changed; in limited cases, requests that make a strong case for revisiting an initial placement will also be considered. Opening the process in early 2027 lets us evaluate every request systematically, across both campuses, before the July 2027 launch.

The study is designed to ensure Sage’s pay practices are fair, consistent, transparent, and financially sustainable. It will help us understand how our salaries compare to similar institutions and how we can better support faculty and staff.

We selected peer institutions based on clear criteria including organizational type, enrollment, geography, cost of living, student profile, faculty/staff structure, and endowment size.

The median shows what a person earns in a role and is not influenced by unusually high or low salaries. If, for instance, an individual at some other institution takes a leave of absence or gets a promotion mid-year, the reported salary may not be fully accurate. The median controls for that and gives a more accurate picture of salary norms. We also review the average (mean) to confirm consistency.

No. All data is anonymous. We work with position-level information only and do not share or display individual salaries.

Faculty data is being reviewed carefully because faculty workload, tenure status, discipline, and market conditions vary greatly. This data will be reviewed internally by leadership and the committee before any broader communication.

Position matching is based on job responsibilities and level of work, not just job titles. For example, a “director” at Sage may align with a “head,” “deputy,” or “chief” role at another institution, depending on function.

The main outcome will be a set of salary pay bands that bring clarity, consistency, and transparency to compensation across the college. These will be developed with fiscal sustainability in mind.

Our target is to have draft pay bands developed by early March. After that, we will begin internal review and planning for future implementation steps.

You can share input at any time through the online feedback form. 

Updates will be shared through the Compensation Committee, at Town Halls, and on the website.

Staff salaries are reviewed by grouping positions into categories based on the level of responsibility, scope of work, and functional similarity. Rather than evaluating each role in isolation, this approach allows us to look at staff compensation in a consistent and equitable way across the institution. Grouping positions also helps ensure that roles with similar expectations are compared to appropriate market benchmarks, even when job titles differ across institutions.

Salary bands are defined ranges of pay for groups of similar positions. Each band is built around a market benchmark and is designed to support fairness, transparency, and growth over time. Bands allow employees to progress within a role as they gain experience, take on additional responsibilities, or demonstrate strong performance, while remaining aligned with market expectations. When a role changes significantly or an employee is promoted, the position moves into a different salary band aligned with the new level of responsibility.

We are currently developing clear descriptions for each pay band, along with a consistent process for how positions are grouped and what criteria would support movement from one band to another.

This work will be reviewed by the Compensation Committee and finalized in collaboration with Human Resources. At that point, we will put in an HR-driven process and a set of policies to support positions moving between pay bands. Supervisors are encouraged to co-create professional development plans to achieve individuals' long-term goals. 

Our goal is to make this process as clear and transparent as possible. We expect to share this information directly with staff in September.

We recognize that compensation analysis has been conducted previously at both institutions, and that work reflects a strong commitment to getting this right.

As part of the merger and the broader scope of this study, we are using a single, unified framework moving forward. This approach is based on a consistent methodology and benchmarking data from approximately 85 comparable institutions.

Using one shared framework allows us to create a more transparent, consistent, and sustainable approach to compensation across the merged institution.

We understand there is strong interest in how pay bands will work and what they will mean for individual roles.

The criteria and descriptions for pay bands are still being finalized. This includes defining how positions are grouped, how movement between bands may occur, and how this will be communicated clearly and consistently across the institution.

Our goal is to share this information in a way that is transparent, thoughtful, and easy to understand. We expect to provide more detailed information directly to staff in September, along with opportunities to ask questions and review how this applies to individual roles.