Editor’s note: The following message was sent via email from UTSA President Taylor Eighmy, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Heather Shipley and Executive Vice President for Business Affairs and Chief Enterprise Development Officer Veronica Salazar to all faculty and staff.
As we look ahead to the upcoming year, developing a total rewards package designed to support and retain our employees remains a key strategic priority. This important initiative is closely aligned with our destination to be an innovative place to work, learn and discover
We are pleased to share that we are able to continue our focus on total rewards strategies in fiscal year 2026 (FY26), building on our comprehensive strategic plan to increase compensation over the last 5 years. People Excellence — in partnership with WTW — and our Academic Affairs team have engaged in a university-wide staff compensation study and a concurrent internal faculty compensation review. Following these in-depth compensation analyses, we are engaging in a variety of strategies to support employees, including a new investment to our salary base of $14 million toward faculty and staff salaries. This investment in our workforce was a priority in the FY26 budget development process.
This year, employees will see a mix of new and existing strategies. Specifically, many faculty and staff will see salary increases as a result of the important compensation work. These increases, combined with other benefits—including administrative leave for outstanding staff performance and updated compensation practices for faculty through promotion and tenure and comprehensive periodic evaluation—are all part of our efforts to develop a comprehensive total rewards strategy for employees.
Total Rewards Strategies: Staff
In April 2024, we launched a compensation study to ensure total rewards packages for staff are competitive. In May 2025, we shared that the staff compensation study was moving into its next steps, and today we are pleased to share more details as we move toward finalizing this important work. The outcomes of our study will include adjusted salary ranges based on current market data, revised job description templates and updated job titles for some positions. With key input from WTW, the review of job titles will help us identify duplicate or outdated titles and align our structure with industry best practices, supporting more effective benchmarking and compensation management.
We will begin a multi-year approach to ensure staff compensation is competitive and aligned with market standards. To begin progress toward this goal, we are carefully reviewing salary structure and staff compensation to identify opportunities for meaningful adjustments and improvements, while working within current budget constraints.
As part of this university-wide initiative, you may see changes to your job title, job description or salary range. We estimate approximately 50% of staff will see an increase in compensation, with increases varying based on position and current salary. If your title or role is affected, you will be informed and supported through the transition. Staff will receive more information in October, with increases and title adjustments taking effect Jan. 1, 2026. Salary increases will appear on Feb. 1 paychecks.
In addition to adjustments resulting from the compensation study, we are pleased to continue awarding benefits-eligible staff up to 32 hours of paid time off in the form of administrative leave for outstanding performance. As in previous years, the total awarded hours will be based on performance evaluation ratings, with more information available on the People Excellence website.
Total Rewards Strategies: Faculty
Concurrent with the staff compensation study, Academic Affairs engaged in an internal study to develop a strategy for competitive faculty pay. This study was part of our commitment to ensure that compensation packages are reflective of the value our talented faculty bring to the institution.
As a result of this study, we have established new fixed term track (FTT) range minimums and will move our Tenure/Tenure-Track (T/TT) salaries closer to R1 institution market ranges. We estimate approximately 30% of faculty will see an increase in compensation, with increases varying based on position and current salary. Those who are impacted will receive more information about their expected increases in October.
Additionally, in 2024, we updated compensation practices for promotion and tenure (P&T), comprehensive periodic evaluation (CPE), and fixed-term track (FTT) faculty promotion, with new salary increases going into effect this fall. We encourage you to read more about these changes, which continue to support our commitment to developing robust total rewards for faculty.
Next steps
Over the next two months, People Excellence will finalize staff salary adjustments and title recommendations based on our work with WTW as a part of the compensation study and will launch new job description templates, compensation guidelines and best practices. At the same time, Faculty Success will finalize faculty salary changes.
While this year’s approach will not include merit-based increases, we are confident that focusing our efforts on implementing recommendations from the compensation study will allow us to ensure our faculty and staff total rewards packages are competitive and aligned with market standards
As we move forward, we will continue to enhance and prioritize our ongoing total rewards strategies to recognize the incredible work of our faculty and staff. These strategies will remain a priority as we collectively work toward building a world-class university.
Thank you, as always, for all the great work you do for our university!
