University of Wisconsin rewarded exceptional staff performances with more than 1,637 merit payments in 2014, the most awarded by any state agency.

Merit pay refers to both hourly wage increases and lump sum bonuses awarded by the Office of State Employee relations based on an individual’s exceptional performance, Bob Lavigna, assistant vice chancellor for Human Resources, said.

Since the UW System, the state’s largest employer, currently employs approximately 5,000 workers eligible for merit pay, and Madison is the largest campus within the system, Lavigna said it is intuitive that the unversity be awarded the most merit pay.

Among the 1,637 merit payments awarded by the campus, 1,590 were permanent pay increases and 47 were lump sum bonuses, according to data compiled by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Hourly pay raises ranged from $0.48 to $3.43, and lump sum beneficiaries were awarded between $164 and $5,637, the data showed.

Only classified employees are eligible to receive merit pay, UW System spokesperson Heather LaRoi said. This includes clerical, technical, information processing, trades, blue collar and administrative support positions, according to UW’s Office of Human Resources website.

Merit pay is an opportunity for the university to acknowledge individuals whose contributions are often unappreciated, Lavigna said.

“[Classified employees] oftentimes don’t get recognized in the way that some of our faculty and academic staff do because they don’t have high profile jobs,” he said. “Nevertheless, these are the people who enable us to operate and be a world class institution, so I believe anytime that we have the opportunity to reward exceptional performers that’s a good thing.”

In order for a worker to receive merit pay he or she is first recommended by an individual academic or administrative unit, Lavigna said. Then, the submitted recommendations are reviewed by UW’s Office of Human Resources.

If the office agrees with the recommendation, the proposal is sent to the Office of State Employee Relations, Lavigna said. From there, the request for merit pay would be approved and the worker would receive payment, he said.

Positions which are considered exclusive to higher education, such as professors, researchers and deans, are unclassified and ineligible to receive merit payments, LaRoi said.

Instead, these employees are only eligible to receive a raise greater than the flat rate awarded to every state employee if they are promoted or if there are “equity or competitive factors,” LaRoi said. Last year, all state employees received a 1 percent raise, she said.

In the future, the UW System plans to reward unclassified staff for exceptional performance as well, Lavigna said.

“As of July 1, we’ll have our own personnel system which we’re developing now and we hope to continue providing merit based compensation,” Lavigna said. “We also hope we’ll get statutory authority, which we don’t have now, to provide performance-based compensation to academic faculty and staff.”

The UW System is forwarding some statutory language that if enacted would give the university the authority to reward academic faculty and staff as well, Lavigna said.