Turning Merit Scores into Salaries

M u ch has been written in the higher education administration literat u re about measuring the re s e a rch , t e a ch i n g, and service outcomes of faculty memb e rs (Braskamp and Ory 1994; Dilts, H ab e r, and Bialik 1994; Lewis 1996; Cent ra 1993). How each of many multiple outcomes enters salary determ i n at i o n e q u ations is also well studied, with even similar dep a rtments of economics ap p a re n t ly adopting diffe rent fi xe d weight fo rmulae for assigning a salary i n d ex and/or ch a n ges to a salary index for multiple re s e a rch , t e a ch i n g, and service outcomes (Raga n , Wa rren and Brat s b e rg 1999).1 But the methods for alloc ating salary raises to individuals on the basis of an aggregate merit score, when faced with the constraint of a fi xed amount of money for ra i s e s , re c e ive little attention. For ex a m p l e, the authors of the four wo rks on higher educat i o n a d m i n i s t ration prev i o u s ly mentioned add ressed the measurement of fa c u l t y o u t p u t , the weighting of output, and the assigning of merit points, but they did not add ress the algeb ra for conve rting merit points to salary raises given a fi xe d bu d get constra i n t .2 A single fo rmula for meri t raise salary schemes based on either a fi xed cash a m o u n t , a perc e n t age of base salary, or any combination of the two is prov i d e d h e re. Wh at is unique about this fo rmula is that it makes explicit how meri t s c o re s , t ogether with prior salaries and the pot of money ava i l able for ra i s e s , d e t e rmine individual salaries. Th e re are no arbitra ry thresholds or untra c e abl e re l ationships between merit scores and the pot of money ava i l able for meri t ra i s e s .