Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023

Dear UNT Faculty and Staff,

I have heard from many of you that inflation is making it difficult to make ends meet. I have also heard that we need to move to competitive salaries at UNT. Rising costs impact all of us — including our university’s budget. I want you to know that I remain steadfast in having compensation be my highest priority because of your hard work and dedication. 

We provided an extra $500 last November to help ease the impact of inflation for our faculty and staff. This year, we intend to give another one-time payment for the individuals who were here last year. This means that all full-time retirement eligible employees who were hired at UNT on or before Aug. 1, 2022 will see a $500 lump sum payment in their Dec. 1 paycheck. Part-time employees who are retirement eligible and have been working at UNT since Aug. 1, 2022, will receive proportional adjustments (i.e., $250 for half-time). 

We intended to add this sum to base salaries of these employees this year, but this pathway allows us the chance to quickly fulfill the commitment we made last year as we continue work on finalizing our budget. This $500 will become part of your base salary starting the next fiscal year. 

Budget finalization also will allow us to address merit pay increases. The ability to give merit raises based on exemplary performance is important. We should have details by mid-November, so please look for more information at that time.  

Ensuring adequate compensation for our hard-working faculty and staff remains our highest priority, and we will do all we can to meet your needs while dealing with rising operational costs. We are painfully aware of the importance to pay more competitively and are working to address this as quickly as possible.

I want to thank you all for your commitment to our university and our mission. I appreciate your patience as we work to improve compensation for our community.  

Respectfully,
Neal Smatresk
President