Monday, Nov. 2, 2026
Dear colleagues,
K-State’s future depends on the people who teach our students, advance discovery, serve our communities and sustain the university’s work every day. Supporting our people and being an employer of choice requires a clear commitment to compensation, guided by the principle that every position at K-State deserves competitive compensation within its respective market. Meeting this commitment requires a thoughtful, responsible, data-driven approach.
You have consistently asked us to prioritize compensation. University leadership – the president, provost, vice presidents and deans – have heard you through employee surveys, Faculty Senate open forums, the input that shaped our Next-Gen K-State strategic plan and the many conversations between supervisors and employees that occurred since then. This month, you will begin to see the first steps of the Compensation Study and progress toward achieving its goals.
Compensation accounts for more than $66 million of the Budget Transformation Initiative. Budget Transformation is designed, in part, to build the mechanism that secures these funds over multiple years through strategic reallocation of existing funding. The commitment to secure this funding reflects how important our people are to K-State’s future. The Compensation Study helps us steward this investment through clear evidence, consistent practices and a long-term philosophy and approach to competitive pay.
As we share faculty and staff job and pay structures, we want everyone to understand the purpose of this first phase, the decisions guiding this work and the steps still ahead.
Establishing a sound foundation
Launched in spring 2025, the Compensation Study began with a fundamental question: How does K-State’s pay compare with pay for similar jobs at comparable institutions?
The study uses external compensation data from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR), using its salary survey data for a group of 37 comparator institutions, along with additional third-party sources that support staff comparisons with business and industry. Faculty, staff and graduate student compensation steering committees worked with our consulting partner and executive leadership team to inform a phased implementation approach throughout.
Phase I establishes market-based pay structures and addresses positions identified as below the study’s market benchmarks. This foundation supports more consistent compensation decisions across the university while recognizing differences among disciplines and types of work.
Understanding what Phase I will do: Under-market adjustments
Based on the refined study data as of October 2026, positions held by 23% of staff and 28% of faculty will receive an under-market adjustment. This increase will align their positions with the current comparable market. The remaining positions were identified as within market per the study’s methodology. It is also important to understand that no employee’s pay will be reduced as a result of the Compensation Study.
We understand that colleagues who do not receive an adjustment may feel disappointed. A Phase I outcome is not a judgment about the value of someone’s work or the strength of their contributions. It answers a specific question about the position’s pay relative to the market benchmarks used in this study in an effort to ensure that faculty and staff positions are paid within market.
Keeping market alignment and performance in focus
The university uses two primary ways to offer competitive compensation: Market adjustments and merit-based awards. Market adjustments typically occur when evidence shows a position is below market pay, and merit awards are provided based on performance and exemplary work. You may wonder if an under-market adjustment may benefit employees with performance concerns, and these questions deserve a clear answer.
As stated, market adjustments are based on the work a position is expected to perform, as defined by its job duties and responsibilities, aligned with the market. Merit awards recognize how well an individual performs that work. Phase I focuses solely on a position’s market alignment, not the individual's performance in the position.
However, both responsibilities matter. We must address below-market pay, and we must continue to set clear expectations, reward excellence and address performance concerns. This is why K-State instituted a new performance management system that provides a uniform process for staff performance evaluation, while continuing to enhance faculty performance evaluation efforts.
Performance evaluation data from 2025 indicates that 94% of eligible faculty and staff were assessed by their supervisors as having successfully met or exceeded job expectations and received a merit bonus. This shows that only 6% of eligible faculty and staff did not receive any merit bonus, a much smaller percentage than the number of faculty and staff who will receive under-market adjustments.
Building for the long term
Retaining exceptional faculty and staff requires sustained attention to both competitive pay and individual contributions. Base-funded Professorial Performance Awards, Targeted Faculty Salary Enhancements and one-time merit awards, as well as other existing opportunities, will continue to support that work.
The next phases of the study will collect individual compensable factors and address employees’ placement within their market-aligned pay ranges. This process will begin in January 2027 as outlined in the implementation timeline. Compensable factors for staff, including years of service and experience, education level, and more, as well as compensable factors for faculty — including research, scholarship and creative activity, grant and sponsored funding activity, teaching contributions, and more — will be collected and validated through a coordinated process. These factors will then be analyzed based on a defined scale to ensure each individual’s pay is optimally aligned within their pay range.
It is also important to recognize that work on graduate student compensation will continue, with an implementation working group currently developing the timeline for implementing the new minimum stipend for GTAs and GRAs.
Our responsibility is to build a compensation system that serves our people and strengthens the university over time: one that supports competitive pay, rewards performance, encourages career growth and makes responsible use of our resources.
Phase I moves us toward that future with approaches that will help K-State attract and retain talent. We encourage you to review the information on the Compensation Study initiative website, refer back to communications as needed, and explore the expanding resources on the HR Compensation website to stay informed throughout this process.
You asked K-State to prioritize compensation, and you’ll begin to see the early outcomes of that work this month. We will carry that responsibility forward with care for our people and a clear view of the university we are building together.
Thank you for all you contribute to K-State.
Jesse Perez Mendez
Provost and executive vice president
Ethan Erickson
Vice president for administration and finance
