I worked at UMBC and University of Baltimore for several years, and the pay raises were very very minimal in my experience. Sometimes there was no real increase, and when there was, I honestly don’t remember the exact amount, but I think it’s because it was just so minimal that I didn’t really notice ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I taught in the Liberal Arts department in case that matters, but this is my experience with university jobs.

In the past year, I believe state employees have had something like an 8% raise (cola and merit - so less if you didn't meet merit goals) - with another 4.5% coming in november. Previously, I think the last raise was .5% before the pandemic (and I may be wrong, but I don't think there was any raise the previous few years before 2019) I think the state is very worried about losing employees due to generally low salaries compared to private industry.

COLAs are given. Merit increases would apply to university, but that's decided by university systems. The step system is for all other state entities.

There have been little to no step increases for a very long time. Cola's happen routinely and multiple times this year. Merit increases don't happen often, but there was one this year, usually budget requirements are tied to it.

So besides cola's you'd have to move to a different role to get a bump.

Most of the time it's 0%. This past year was a merit + cola and the last time was a few years ago.

I work for university of Maryland. Most years there is a little bump for Cola. Last year and this year we also got 2% merit bumps, but before last year we had never gotten one. It’s very difficult to receive a salary increase for performance here. Essentially the only way is to be promoted to a new role/title. Otherwise they can only give you pay increases if your salary is in the bottom percentage range (I think bottom 20%) of employees who share your title. If you do get a new title, the position has to be posted and you have to apply for it and interview.

Briefly worked at a university and I remember long time staff always had trouble getting raises, for a few years I think even COLAs weren’t given.

Same here, though I can look back at my documents and say that for 3 of my 5 years at UMB, I received no raise, and twice I received a 3% COLA raise. I left for multiple reasons, one of which was I was told every year that we were getting COLA raises, but then was later told that my position didn't qualify. It was...frustrating.

I will say, that I was admin, and the faculty had no such issues.

Get ready for a pittance

I worked part time at UMB for twenty years snd the few raises I ever saw were eaten up by furloughs and the like whenever the economy was bad.

Yeah, same in terms of the “frustrating” aspect. That’s why I left academia and never looked back! 😎

Worked at UMD, as mentioned below it was low, like 2% COLA but they did give good contributions to retirement, which can be a toss up in private sector. As an fyi salaries are posted publicly so do your research if you can figure out who you’re replacing (UMD for example: https://salaryguide.dbknews.com/)

Current employee at state university, can confirm!