Most Colorado State University employees know their salary or hourly pay rate. But do they know the value of everything they receive as an employee from the university, in addition to their salary or wage?
An employee’s pay is an important piece of their financial picture but doesn’t show the full value of their total compensation. CSU’s contributions toward an employee’s health insurance, disability insurance, and retirement plan, and the dollar value of paid time off such as sick days or other kinds of leave all add to a total compensation package.
The university has an excellent package of benefits: benefits are those extras like health insurance, leave, and well-being programs such as the Employee Assistance Program, YOU@CSU and SilverCloud. The value of those “extras” is part of an employee’s total compensation – the value of pay plus benefits.
“As an institution of higher education and government employer, CSU cannot always compete with private businesses in paying high wages to its employees,” said Brett Anderson, interim vice president for Human Resources. “But we work hard to make up for that in other ways – often with an ‘invisible currency’ that can be overlooked – the value of the many benefits our employees receive simply because they work at CSU. Our benefits add intrinsic and monetary value for our employees and make up a significant amount of compensation for our employees, in addition to wages. Human Resources has worked for years to build a package of benefits and resources that demonstrate to our employees that they matter.
“Employees may be surprised to see the total compensation they get from the university, in addition to their paycheck.”
In fact, the university pays 78% of the overall cost of medical insurance for faculty and administrative professionals. Faculty and administrative professionals also have two medical insurance options to choose from that come at no charge to them because CSU pays the entire premium. State classified employees receive competitive benefits through the state.
Human Resources has launched two new tools to help employees understand the value of their current benefits as well as the benefits they might take advantage of in the future.
Individualized statement on value of benefits
Employees can now access a personalized statement of the value of their total compensation. This is a personalized statement that will show the value of the specific benefits an employee can access in addition to their wages. Some benefits require that the employee enroll for them during open enrollment.
The new statement generator calculates for each employee their annual pay, plus the value of their individual benefits, including what CSU pays for benefits. For example, CSU pays a percentage of the cost of an employee’s retirement plan.
This includes the value of:
- Medical insurance For example, an administrative professional in a CSU health insurance plan can see their own and CSU’s annual premium payments into the health insurance plan for their coverage.
- Dental coverage.
- Short-term and long-term disability.
- Life insurance.
- Paid leave, such as holidays, vacation and sick leave days.
It’s important to note that every employee’s statement will be different based on their choices related to their benefits, such as the level of medical coverage they choose, how many family members they include in their coverage, and other factors.
The university contributes a significant portion of the value of each employee’s benefits; each statement will show the percentage the university pays toward an employee’s benefits.
Employees can generate their personal total compensation statement on demand through Employee Self Service. To access your statement, follow these steps.
Total compensation calculator
If you are considering changing your benefits, such as expanding medical coverage to family members, or if you’re on a hiring committee looking to attract top candidates for a job, this new calculator is a great tool.
The calculator – found at hr.colostate.edu/total-compensation-calculator/ – allows employees or prospective employees to plug different scenarios in to see the value of various benefit options. An example of how this calculator can show the changing value of compensation includes comparing the value of health insurance for only the employee vs. for an entire family.
Many additional benefits
While comprehensive, both the new calculator and personalized report do not include all university benefits.
The university offers significant additional benefits and discounts to employees, including many that do not appear in the statement and calculator because they are voluntary. These programs are an important aspect of overall employee compensation and include:
- Up to six free counseling sessions with a professional in your community and other free referrals to community experts on a variety of topics ranging from help identifying elder care to referrals to legal assistance, offered through the Employee Assistance Program.
- SilverCloud, a free and confidential service based on cognitive behavior principles; SilverCloud has been shown to help individuals with resilience, anxiety, depression, sleep and other concerns.
- YOU@CSU, an interactive well-being tool with a new portal devoted to CSU employees.
- Commitment to Campus discounts, which include discounts or other benefits for dozens of university and community programs and services, ranging from discounted athletics tickets to nutrition counseling, to reduced-fee after-school programs.
- CARE program services, which helps employees with financial difficulties or in crisis find resources such as emergency shelter, food and services.
- Employee housing programs, including a new mortgage waiver program for university employees.
- One-on-one retirement plans education through CSU’s retirement plan company, Fidelity Investments.
- Inclusive medical benefits for all gender identities through CSU’s medical insurance providers.
- Parental leave for parents with new family members.
- Free CSU tuition for employees and a tuition discount for their family members
- FAMLI paid leave, a new leave that can be used when an employee needs medical leave to care for themselves or a family member. Employees can start taking leave beginning in 2024.
Some of these benefits require that an employee meet specific criteria to be eligible.
For more information about benefits and choices available to employees, contact Human Resources at 970-491-6947 or myhr@colostate.edu.
