W. Va. Code R. agency 133, tit. 133, ser. 133-55, app A
Definitions
General Definitions._
Definitions in this section are applicable to higher education generally and terms and conditions of employment.
Benefits. Programs that an employer uses to supplement the cash compensation of employees, including but not limited to, health and welfare plans, retirement plans, pay for time not worked (i.e. sick leave, annual leave, holiday pay, etc.) and other employee perquisites.
Chancellor. Chancellor refers to the chief executive officer of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission or the West Virginia Council for Community and Technical College Education, as appropriate.
Compensatory Time and Compensatory Time Off. Hours during which the employee is not working, which are not counted as hours worked during the applicable work week or other work period for purposes of overtime compensation and for which the employee is compensated at the employee's regular rate of pay.
Exempt Employees. Employees not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for overtime purposes.
Full Time Equivalency (FTE). The percentage of time for which a position is established, with a full-time position working 1,950 hours per year being 1.00 FTE.
Health and Welfare Benefit Plan. An arrangement which provides any of the following benefits: medical, dental, visual, psychiatric or long-term health care, life insurance, accidental death or dismemberment benefits, disability benefits, or comparable benefits.
Incumbent. An incumbent is an individual person in a position employed at an institution.
Longevity. The total number of years employed at state institutions of higher education and other agencies of state government in West Virginia.
Major Deficiency. When an organization has failed to comply with applicable personnel rules of the Commission.
Meaningful Accountability. Measures that ensure adherence to rules and policies and provides for consequences for non-compliance.
Non-Exempt Employee. An employee who is covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and is entitled to overtime as outlined in federal and state law.
Organization. Organization means the Commission, the Council, an agency or entity under the respective jurisdiction of the Commission or the Council or a state institution of higher education. Organizations include the following entities individually or collectively -- Bluefield State College; Concord University; Fairmont State University; Glenville State College; Marshall University; Shepherd University; West Liberty University; West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine; West Virginia State University; West Virginia University, including Potomac State College and West Virginia University Institute of Technology; Blue Ridge Community and Technical College; BridgeValley Community and Technical College; Eastern West Virginia Community and Technical College; Mountwest Community and Technical College; New River Community and Technical College; Pierpont Community and Technical College; Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College; West Virginia Northern Community College; West Virginia University at Parkersburg; the Office of the Higher Education Policy Commission; the Office of the Council for Community and Technical College Education; and the West Virginia Network for Educational Telecomputing.
President. A chief executive officer of an institution of higher education in West Virginia who reports to the institution's governing board. This term shall be used in this rule to refer to the Chancellor for the office of the Higher Education Policy Commission and the Director of the West Virginia Network for Educational Telecomputing.
Rehire. Rehire defines an employee who leaves the service of an institution and later applies for and accepts a position offered by the same institution.
Seniority. The total number of months or years employed with the current West Virginia higher education organization employer.
Job Documentation Classification and Compensation.
Definitions in this section are applicable to job documentation, classification and compensation management.
Base salary. The amount or a rate of compensation for a specified position of employment or activity excluding annual experience increment and any other payments or allowances for work or activity unrelated to that specified position of employment.
Base salary adjustment. The amount that a base salary increases within the pay grade to reward performance, to rectify inequities, or to accommodate competitive market conditions.
Benchmark Job. A job that is commonly found and defined, used to make pay comparisons to comparable jobs outside the organization.
Career Ladder. A structured sequence of related, upwardly progressing positions.
Classification System. An organized structure in which jobs, job descriptions, job titles, and job analyses are utilized to determine a hierarchy of jobs, career ladders and pay grade assignments.
Compa-Ratio. A measure to assess competitiveness of current salary level to the market (midpoint of the salary structure). Compa-ratio is the short form for Comparative ratio. It measures the ratio of an employee's actual salary (the numerator) to the midpoint of the applicable (the denominator) salary range. To calculate an individual's compa-ratio, divide the base salary by the midpoint of the assigned salary range (pay grade range). See also "salary range penetration".
Compensation. Earnings provided by an employer to an employee for services rendered.
Compensation Philosophy. The guiding principles that ensure that a compensation program supports an organization's culture.
Compensation Strategy. The principles that guide the design, implementation and administration of a compensation program at an organization for the purpose of supporting the organization's mission, vision, goals and objectives.
Compression. The situation encountered when a new employee enters into the organization at or above the pay of someone who is currently in the same role in the organization. It can also exist when you have two jobs in the same job family with someone in the "lower" job earning more than the person in the "higher" job. There are some families in which this may make sense such as software development where a senior developer may appropriately earn more in base than a manager of the function.
Increment. Annual payment to employees based on years of West Virginia state government work experience and earned pursuant to West Virginia Code § 5-5-2.
Internal Equity Analysis. A comparative analysis of compensation levels within an organization to determine if a level of compensation is equitable when compared to compensation of other employees who hold similarly situation positions in the same job classification or pay grade who have the same or similar levels of knowledge, skill, experience and performance.
Interim Responsibilities. A significant change in duties and responsibilities of an employee on a temporary basis justifying an interim promotion or upgrade for salary purposes. Such a temporary reassignment shall normally be for no less than four (4) consecutive weeks, no more than twelve (12) consecutive months, and shall only occur when the responsibilities being undertaken by the employee are those of another position that is vacant.
JDXperts. Web based job information and description management software system provided as a shared service to institutions of the Commission and Council. JDXperts is the official depository of institutional job information used for job analysis, institution job description development, master classification specification development and identification of benchmark jobs. Benchmark jobs are used to build and maintain the market based salary structure administered by institutions as part of the higher education employee classification and compensation management program.
Job. The total collection of tasks, duties, and responsibilities assigned to one or more individuals whose work is of the same nature and level.
Job Analysis. A systematic process in which information is collected via a position information form relative to the nature of a specific job, providing documentation and knowledge needed for conducting a job evaluation.
Job Class / Pay Grade. The level to which a job is assigned within a salary structure.
Job Classification/Job Evaluation. A formal process used to evaluate jobs, establish proper pay grades, and slot jobs in pay grades.
Job Classification Committee. A Committee of employee and human resources representatives established by West Virginia Code tasked with evaluating classification appeals and other changes to classified jobs.
Job Description. (Used interchangeably with the phrases institution job description, position job description, incumbent job description): A summary of the essential functions of a job at a particular institution, including the general nature and level of the work performed, a characteristic listing of duties and responsibilities, and the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to perform the work. Best practices in human resources management support maintaining a current job description for all jobs in the organization, regardless of the employee category assigned to the position incumbent.
Job Family. A series of job titles in an occupational area or group.
Job Specification. See Master Classification Specification
Job Title. The label that uniquely identifies and generally describes a job. The same descriptive job title shall be given to a group of jobs, regardless of location in the organization, which are substantially the same in duties and responsibilities, and which require substantially the same knowledge, skills and abilities performed under similar working conditions.
Labor Market. The labor market for compensation is the geographic area, industry, organization size, or organization type from which an organization attracts employees. Market Value refers to how much a particular job would be worth for a specific talent market (industry, size, location, organization type) at a specific or target percentile.
Master Classification Specification/Job Specification. General descriptions of the collective type and kind of work performed by the majority of employees assigned the same job classification. Each master specification will contain a job title, nature of work performed, distinguishing characteristics of the job, and a general description of typical duties and responsibilities performed by positions assigned the title, regardless of the location of the position.
Mid-Point. Midpoint is the middle of a pay range; the midpoint typically aligns to the market value for the job. See "Range Midpoint"
Merit Increases. A discretionary salary increase given to an employee to reward demonstrated achievements in the performance of the duties and responsibilities of a position, as evaluated by criteria established by the organization.
Pay Grade. See Job Class/Pay Grade.
Pay Range Quartile. The four divisions of a pay range. The point between the 2nd and third quartile is the midpoint of the pay range.
Pay Range or Pay Range Spread. Pay range is an expression of the pay for a position assigned to a pay grade in a salary structure that provides the minimum, midpoint and maximum levels of compensation. The range from minimum to maximum, expressed as a percentage, is the pay range spread. The range spread percentage is calculated by subtracting the minimum from the maximum and dividing by the minimum the multiplying by 100.
Pay Structure. See Salary Schedule
Position. A set of duties and responsibilities requiring employment of a single employee at a particular organization.
Position Description Form/Job Description Form (PDF/JDF). A tool used to collect a broad range of job information used in the creation and classification of a new or changed position. A position description form is not required for every employee or job. Formerly referred to as a position information questionnaire.
Promotion. Movement from a position requiring a certain level of skill, effort, and authority into a vacant or newly created classified position assigned to a different job title and a higher pay grade that requires a greater degree of skill, effort, and authority.
Range Midpoint. Midpoint is the middle of a pay range. The midpoint typically aligns to the market value for the job.
Range Penetration/Position in Range. An important compensation metric to consider in conjunction with a compa-ratio. Rather than just being a comparison to one piece of data (the midpoint), range penetration looks at a salary in relation to the whole pay range. Range Penetration is how far an employee has progressed through the pay range. Range penetration = (Salary - Range Minimum) / (Range Maximum-Range Minimum) See the Salary Administration Guidelines for more information about range penetration.
Rehire. Rehire defines an employee who leaves the service of an institution and later applies for and accepts a position offer at the same institution.
Salary Benchmarking. The process of market pricing a benchmark job.
Salary Structure/Pay Structure/Salary Schedule. A graphical structure consisting of a series of pay grades and range of pay available for each grade.
W. Va. Code R. agency 133, tit. 133, ser. 133-55, app A