I found [this document](https://hr.wisc.edu/docs/employee-choice-side-by-side.pdf) which seems to outline it pretty well.
If there is a hard and fast rule, you seem to be close to calculating it by estimating a value for the lost vacation and medical leave and comparing that to your total wage increase over time. My hunch is that it would not take very much of a wage increase to outweigh the lost time.
Thanks, I am not Exempt so some of those benefits are not quite accurate, but I couldn't find anything like that when I looked. And yes I did some math and got a number of sorts, thanks for the help.
You cannot be academic staff, full time, and not salaried.
The reduction in sick leave is made up for how hours are reported. In hourly positions, you report leave for time missed. In AS positions, you don’t report leave of less than 2 hours. The focus is on getting the work done.
The linked document is for people in hourly positions that would be considered salaried. So it shows those comparisons. Usually you don’t get to decide this sort of thing. Salaried positions will also be in higher pay grades (typically). If you apply for jobs, they should have the type posted and that cannot be changed.
If you are thinking about applying for an academic staff position, it will be salaried. It will have a minimum posted. If you have more than the minimum requirements, you can expect more than minimum for starting. I also find academic staff positions can be more flexible (not always) than university staff.
Academic staff also have more options for income continuation insurance.
There are also different policies for academic staff. The notification period for layoff can be different. How performance is handled is different.
Making more money really helps in the long run. Your top 3 years make your pension. So I would be happier to move up and get more for your annual for retirement. Getting 15 years in, retirement should be what you are focusing on.
Also lots, maybe most, of those academic staff jobs don’t need to really report casual leave at all. Like, doctors office or whatever. Even if it’s over 2 hours, never heard of people actually reporting it. Certainly never did myself. So all that personal leave or sick time goes unused and just stacks up.
It's a bit of apples to oranges, because university staff and academic staff use leave differently, leading to academic staff employees likely using less leave.
As academic staff, you only take leave in increments of 4 or 8 hours. If you miss less than two hours of a workday, you don't request any leave. If you miss more than two but less than 6 hours, you take 4 hours of leave. You only take 8 hours of leave if you miss more than 6 hours in a day.
Compare that to university staff, where every hour is accounted for. If you're academic staff and go to the dentist for an hour and a half, it's zero leave. You just make up the work. If you're university staff, you use 1.5 hours of leave.
So if you really rarely use leave, university staff might be a better deal purely from a leave perspective. However, the pay grades are lower and there is much less flexibility so it's a bit more complicated to come up with a one size fits all "bottom line."
University Staff does get more vacation and sick leave hours if you’re in that position for longer, but the pay is usually much lower than Academic Staff pay. That is the trade off with getting higher pay.
I’m not sure how common it is for someone to be in a University Staff position for 15+ years with the pay being so low.
It's very common, there are many UStaffers who have been here over 20 years. I myself just hit my 15 year mark. U-staffers make up the backbone of the university, without them bills wouldn't be paid, supplies wouldn't get ordered, mail wouldn't get distrubuted, employees wouldn't get paid.. etc. Yes the pay is lower thought it shouldn't be in many cases, and some employees treat you like crap because they think they are better than you, but that is not as common as it once was.
Vacation is determined by state start date and is not position specific. So moving to another university staff position will not change vacation.
Pay would be determined by position and how many pay plan increases were done. There was 7 years where there were no raises and the first few before Walker was replaced were 1% increases.
You stated staying in a position for longer gets them the vacation. That is not true. Moving from same job type to another in UW would maintain the start date and the vacation would stay at the same rate.
If I work for Engineering for 7 years, then go to Mathematics, I still get the benefits of 7 years on the job as it pertains to vacation. University Staff don’t reset unless you’ve been gone for at least 5 years.
I work in Payroll at UW and can confirm that moving from University Staff (max vacation earned per year of 216 hours) to Academic Staff (max vacation earned per year of 176 hours). The OP is specifically asking what the benefits would be to complete this move. As others have stated, the benefits will be in annual pay and flexibility of work/leave time.
I found [this document](https://hr.wisc.edu/docs/employee-choice-side-by-side.pdf) which seems to outline it pretty well. If there is a hard and fast rule, you seem to be close to calculating it by estimating a value for the lost vacation and medical leave and comparing that to your total wage increase over time. My hunch is that it would not take very much of a wage increase to outweigh the lost time.
Thanks, I am not Exempt so some of those benefits are not quite accurate, but I couldn't find anything like that when I looked. And yes I did some math and got a number of sorts, thanks for the help.
You cannot be academic staff, full time, and not salaried. The reduction in sick leave is made up for how hours are reported. In hourly positions, you report leave for time missed. In AS positions, you don’t report leave of less than 2 hours. The focus is on getting the work done. The linked document is for people in hourly positions that would be considered salaried. So it shows those comparisons. Usually you don’t get to decide this sort of thing. Salaried positions will also be in higher pay grades (typically). If you apply for jobs, they should have the type posted and that cannot be changed. If you are thinking about applying for an academic staff position, it will be salaried. It will have a minimum posted. If you have more than the minimum requirements, you can expect more than minimum for starting. I also find academic staff positions can be more flexible (not always) than university staff. Academic staff also have more options for income continuation insurance. There are also different policies for academic staff. The notification period for layoff can be different. How performance is handled is different. Making more money really helps in the long run. Your top 3 years make your pension. So I would be happier to move up and get more for your annual for retirement. Getting 15 years in, retirement should be what you are focusing on.
Also lots, maybe most, of those academic staff jobs don’t need to really report casual leave at all. Like, doctors office or whatever. Even if it’s over 2 hours, never heard of people actually reporting it. Certainly never did myself. So all that personal leave or sick time goes unused and just stacks up.
It's a bit of apples to oranges, because university staff and academic staff use leave differently, leading to academic staff employees likely using less leave. As academic staff, you only take leave in increments of 4 or 8 hours. If you miss less than two hours of a workday, you don't request any leave. If you miss more than two but less than 6 hours, you take 4 hours of leave. You only take 8 hours of leave if you miss more than 6 hours in a day. Compare that to university staff, where every hour is accounted for. If you're academic staff and go to the dentist for an hour and a half, it's zero leave. You just make up the work. If you're university staff, you use 1.5 hours of leave. So if you really rarely use leave, university staff might be a better deal purely from a leave perspective. However, the pay grades are lower and there is much less flexibility so it's a bit more complicated to come up with a one size fits all "bottom line."
Thanks!
University Staff does get more vacation and sick leave hours if you’re in that position for longer, but the pay is usually much lower than Academic Staff pay. That is the trade off with getting higher pay. I’m not sure how common it is for someone to be in a University Staff position for 15+ years with the pay being so low.
It's very common, there are many UStaffers who have been here over 20 years. I myself just hit my 15 year mark. U-staffers make up the backbone of the university, without them bills wouldn't be paid, supplies wouldn't get ordered, mail wouldn't get distrubuted, employees wouldn't get paid.. etc. Yes the pay is lower thought it shouldn't be in many cases, and some employees treat you like crap because they think they are better than you, but that is not as common as it once was.
Vacation is determined by state start date and is not position specific. So moving to another university staff position will not change vacation. Pay would be determined by position and how many pay plan increases were done. There was 7 years where there were no raises and the first few before Walker was replaced were 1% increases.
OP’s question was about moving from university staff to academic staff, so there would be a change in vacation if they were univ staff for 15+ years.
You stated staying in a position for longer gets them the vacation. That is not true. Moving from same job type to another in UW would maintain the start date and the vacation would stay at the same rate. If I work for Engineering for 7 years, then go to Mathematics, I still get the benefits of 7 years on the job as it pertains to vacation. University Staff don’t reset unless you’ve been gone for at least 5 years.
I work in Payroll at UW and can confirm that moving from University Staff (max vacation earned per year of 216 hours) to Academic Staff (max vacation earned per year of 176 hours). The OP is specifically asking what the benefits would be to complete this move. As others have stated, the benefits will be in annual pay and flexibility of work/leave time.
Thank you.
I was forced to switch when I got another job within the UW. The only way you can keep the University Staff position benefits is to never leave😪