DEA REGULATION

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS: SALARIES AND WAGES

SECTION ONE: GENERAL PRINCIPLES

1.01 The College shall set wages for part-time employees, adjunct instructors, and temporary contract personnel based on the new employee’s work experience and credentials, conditions of employment, complexity of work, and level of independent judgment and responsibility required by the position in relation to other College positions, labor market conditions, and College resource, while ensuring the total expense for all such employees is within the allocation authorized by the Board in the College’s annual budget.  

1.02 The College may award a stipend to an employee to address market conditions affecting the competitiveness of the College’s compensation in specific administrative or academic fields or as compensation for additional non-typical work performed in a given fiscal year.

 1.03 The College will round up all salaries and wages to the nearest value evenly divisible by 12 whenever the Board approves a salary or wage increase or when applying other adjustments.  

1.04 The Vice President of Academic Affairs shall determine the length of the annual appointment of each full-time instructor based upon the needs of the College. 

1.05 The following general guidelines apply to setting individual salaries or wages upon hire:

1.05.1 The College President will set the salary for each newly hired College Executive.
1.05.2The Senior Director of Human Resources will recommend a salary for each newly hired full-time instructor, based on the Faculty Starting Salary Schedule.  The Senior. Director of Human Resources, Vice President of Business Affairs and Vice President of Academic Affairs will review all recommendations and will make a final determination.
1.05.3 The Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs will recommend a salary for each newly hired full-time or part-time noncredit instructor based on market conditions and college resources.  The Senior Director of Human Resources, Vice President of Business Affairs and Vice President of Academic Affairs will review all recommendations and make a final determination.
1.05.4 The executive supervisor of each position will recommend a salary or wage for each newly hired full-time employee.  The Senior Director of Human Resources, Vice President of Business Affairs and Vice President of Academic Affairs will review all recommendations and make a final determination.

1.05.5 The executive supervisor of each position will recommend a wage for each newly hired nonteaching part-time employee. The Director of Human Resources, Vice President of Business Affairs, and Vice President of Academic Affairs will review all recommendations and make a final determination. 

1.05.6 The College will set the salary for all adjunct instructors annually during the budgeting process.

SECTION TWO: CLASSIFICATION OF POSITIONS

2.01 The Senior Director of Human Resources shall determine the classification of positions or employees as “exempt” or “non-exempt” for purposes of payment of overtime in compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

2.01.1 Exempt: 

Exempt employees, because of their positional duties, responsibilities, and level of decision-making authority, shall be excluded from overtime provisions of the FLSA. The College District shall pay employees who ae exempt from the overtime pay requirements of the FLSA on a salary basis. The salaries of these employees are intended to cover all hours worked, and the College District shall not make deductions that are prohibited under the FLSA.

An employee who believes deductions have been made from his or her salary in violation of this policy should bring the matter to the Payroll Manager for prompt resolution.

2.01.2 Nonexempt: 

Nonexempt employees shall be compensated for all hours worked.  

An employee shall not earn overtime pay unless the employee works more than 40 hours in a work week.

SECTION THREE: WORK WEEK DEFINED

3.01 For purposes of FLSA compliance, the workweek for College District employees shall be 12:00 a.m. Monday until 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

SECTION FOUR: OVERTIME PAY

4.01Employees who work overtime without prior authorization from their supervisor shall be subject to disciplinary action. The employee’s supervisor shall be disciplined if he or she allows subordinates to work unauthorized overtime, if he or she fails to maintain proper records, or if he or she otherwise fails to comply with system policies and procedures regarding timekeeping.

SECTION FIVE: COMPENSATORY TIME

5.01 Nonexempt employees shall not receive compensatory time off, rather than overtime pay, for overtime hours.

SECTION SIX: RAISE FOR INSTRUCTOR CREDIT/DEGREE PROGRESSION

6.01 The College will increase the salary of individual instructors who earn credits from a regionally accredited institution according to the progression presented in Table 1.  When an instructor reaches a step in the progression, the instructor should have the awarding institution send official transcripts to the Vice President of Academic Affairs.  Upon recommendation by the Vice President of Academic Affairs and approval by the Vice President of Business Affairs and the Director of Human Resources, the raise shall be effective and prorated for the current year based on the approval date.  The raise will not be backdated to the date the degree or progression is earned.  Table 1 presents the progression and corresponding increases.

The Vice President of Business Affairs is responsible for reviewing and updating this regulation. Policy reviews are made in accordance with the Office of Institutional Effectiveness Policy Tracking document.

Document History:

Adopted: 09/1995
Revised: 12/2023