KU to provide 3% pay increase for employees

Colleagues,

We are writing to share that all eligible University of Kansas employees across all campuses will receive a 3% increase in base pay, effective in January 2027.

This increase recognizes the outstanding contributions of our faculty and staff and advances our commitment to competitive compensation.

Campus-specific information about eligibility and implementation is available for Lawrence and Edwards and KU Medical Center.

Our commitment to competitive pay

A few points of context about this year’s pay increase may be helpful.

First, last January we enacted compensation adjustments to better align pay with market rates. All employees received a 1% increase, while employees whose pay fell below minimum rates or who needed a compression adjustment may have received more. We still have work to do, and bringing all employees to appropriate benchmarks and aligning compensation practices across campuses will require multiple years of investment. We remain committed to this plan.

Second, this year's across-the-board increase reflects the impact of several consecutive years of high inflation on our employees. While we believe this approach is appropriate this year, our preference in the future is to pursue increases based on a competitive pay philosophy that considers criteria such as market data, experience and individual performance. Recognizing and rewarding excellent work is important to our commitment to attracting and retaining talented employees.

Finally, as discussed in the recent State of the University Address, KU is on stable financial footing, but any significant new investments likely will require additional revenue or difficult choices about spending elsewhere. CFO Jeff DeWitt will discuss these financial considerations in his budget presentation next month.

Thank you for your dedication to KU and our mission of education, service and research. Together, we will continue working to strengthen KU and enhance the way we serve our state and society.

Respectfully,

Doug, Arash and Steve

Douglas A. Girod
Chancellor

Arash Mafi
Chief Academic Officer, Provost & Executive Vice Chancellor
Lawrence and Edwards Campus

Steven Stites
Executive Vice Chancellor
University of Kansas Medical Center

NOTE: The university recognizes its collective bargaining obligations to meet and confer in good faith with each of the recognized bargaining units at the university. This message in no way suggests the university has made decisions or implemented wage actions for positions within a recognized bargaining unit where the meet and confer process has not yet concluded.