Today, I am very pleased to announce an exciting enhancement to the IU Retirement and Savings Plan, the base retirement plan for more than 2,700 IU support and service staff employees.
Under the current IU Retirement and Savings Plan, support and service staff receive an amount equal to four percent of their actual base wage for each regular pay period. This amount is deposited into a TIAA or Fidelity retirement plan account. The university also contributes up to an additional four percent by matching employee contributions to the IU Tax Deferred Account Plan, one of IU’s supplemental retirement plans—for a total contribution by IU of up to eight percent.
I am delighted to announce today that beginning January 1, 2020, the university’s contribution to the IU Retirement and Savings Plan will increase to a flat 10 percent of base wages each pay period. A match will no longer be required.
This increase in the university’s contribution means that our more than 2,700 support and service staff employees will now receive the same level of contribution to their IU-sponsored base retirement plan as faculty and professional staff.
IU’s increased contribution will take effect automatically, and will apply to both current and future plan participants.
This new initiative, along with a number of initiatives I have had the pleasure of announcing or recommending to the Board of Trustees in recent years, including
- a new policy under which IU provides paid parental leave to staff employees, and
- future salary increases at such a level that all employees across the entire university will be earning at least $15 an hour soon after the Bicentennial, demonstrate the university’s substantial and wide-ranging commitment to making IU an engaging, supportive, and fulfilling place to work.
As I have said on many occasions, We believe it is essential that IU provide fair, adequate, and competitive compensation for all of our employees. This, of course, is a goal that the IU Board of Trustees has stressed for many years. With today’s announcement of IU’s increased contribution to the Retirement and Savings Plan, we take another step toward achieving this goal by helping our support and service staff achieve retirement security. Our faculty and staff are our greatest assets and I am very pleased that we are able to continue to reward them for their dedicated and outstanding efforts.