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Compensation: Pay and Performance Rewards

Penn offers a comprehensive total compensation program that includes competitive salaries as well as generous health and welfare,  tuition, retirement, career development,  overall wellness, family, and time-off benefits.

Penn’s Compensation Program

Penn’s compensation program is designed to pay you competitively. That’s why it has these objectives:

  • Evaluate jobs consistently and fairly.
  • Classify University staff positions in the appropriate job profile, with grade profile ranges that are competitive for comparable positions in the external job market.
  • Regularly measure the external market value for comparable jobs and adjust salary structures accordingly.
  • Create and support a system that provides flexibility to managers in pay administration and to staff in career development.

Penn strives to offer market-competitive salaries to attract and retain talented employees. Human Resources conducts ongoing reviews of University positions in order to remain competitive in the marketplace. The University participates in a broad range of third-party salary surveys to assess the market, recommend competitive merit increase pools, and advise Schools and Centers on salary administration and salary offers.

All salary surveys are completed by Core Human Resources, Compensation, which maintains the University’s salary survey library. This extensive library provides current data for making fact-based data-driven recommendations. 

School/Center HR Partners who have identified salary surveys whose data they believe may be relevant to Penn’s market, will not participate in these independently, but should contact their Compensation Partners in Core Human Resources. With complete access to job descriptions and salaries for all University positions, Core Human Resources, Compensation will complete and submit such surveys and will share results with the field as needed.

Performance Management Programs

Penn has performance management programs for both newly-hired staff and staff who transfer positions internally; and an annual performance appraisal program for all staff.

Performance and Pay Increases

Pay and performance are closely linked. The University has a performance-based merit increase program to recognize the valuable contributions of our faculty and staff. Each year, eligible faculty and staff may receive salary increases based on their performance. The Performance and Staff Development Program (annual staff performance appraisal process) promotes effective job performance, establishes career goals, supports professional development, and provides a structure for salary growth.

Time Reporting (for Individuals on Hourly Compensation Plans)

The University's pay practices and procedures are governed by the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  The University is committed to paying its employees in accordance with the requirements of FLSA, relevant state and local laws, and University Policy.  Individuals paid on an hourly basis will track their time in Workday.

The Overtime Pay and/or Compensatory Time policy can be found here.