Q. What am I supposed to get?

A. There are several components of the SHARE raise program. It depends on what you make and how long you have worked here.

MIN: The first part of the raise process is to increase the grade minimums (see the 6/20/2021 wage scale.) If your pay rate is below the new minimum for your grade then you get a raise to the new minimum regardless of when you were hired.

BASIC RAISE: The second part depends on when you were hired. If you were hired:

On or before 12/20/2020 then you are eligible for the full raise. The raise is either $0.50 or 2%, whichever is more for you. It is effective 6/20/2021.
12/21/2020-6/20/2021 then you are eligible for a probationary raise of 1.5%, effective starting the first full pay period after your 6-month probation period ends.
6/21/2021 or after then you are not eligible for the basic 2021 raise.

MAX: The third part is that no one’s base pay can go above their grade max. If your raise would put your rate above grade max then you get the grade max as an hourly rate, and the part that would be over max gets paid as a bonus. For example, if my grade max is $25.00; my current rate is $24.60; my raise is $0.50; and I work 40 hours/week:

My raise + my current rate = $25.10, which is over max. So my new rate is $25.00.
I get the extra as a bonus: $0.10/hour x 40 hours/week x 52 weeks/year = $208.00

STRUCTURE: The fourth part makes sure that no one falls too far behind in their grade for their years of service to UMMS. This is a complicated process – See “Do I need to understand the Structure Raise?” below.

RETRO: The fifth part is to calculate any retro pay owed if the raise is not delivered on time.

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL BONUS: The sixth part is that people who received an “Exceeds” rating on their 2021 performance evaluation will get a $100 bonus and people who received an “Outstanding” rating will get a $250 bonus.

Q. Do I need to understand the Structure Raise?

A. Only if you want to. The structure raise affects less than 10% of SHARE members per year. It will be calculated as part of your overall raise, to make sure you aren’t falling behind in your grade. You don’t need to do anything special to make sure it happens.

Here is a little more detail, if you want it…

After your basic raise is added to your old rate, and if you have had satisfactory performance in the last 2 years, then:

If you have 5 full years of service then your pay is compared to the 25% structure point of the 2021 wage scale.
If you have 10 full years of service then your pay is compared to midpoint (50% structure point.)
If you have 15 years of service then your pay is compared to the 75% structure point.

If your pay rate, after your basic raise, is below the right structure point for your years, then you get an extra raise, up to 5% more. The raise is either whatever it takes to get you to the right structure point for your years, or 5%, whichever is less.

Q. Where does this raise come from?

A. It was part of a larger deal negotiated last spring between SHARE and UMass Medical School. The deal included extending our contract another year (the original contract ended in June 2021), guaranteed us this raise for July 2021, and added protections for SHARE members who were facing layoff. The deal also made our 2020 raise conditional, but we ended up getting the raise and retroactive pay for 2020 this spring. SHARE members made a good decision when we approved that deal. The contract, contract extension, and wage scales can all be found on the SHARE website.