A new faculty pay plan that aims to make professors’ salaries more competitive was launched this fall, capping off a 10-year development process.

Crafted by Faculty Senate President and philosophy professor Wayne Davis, the framework calls for a 4 percent annual increase in the faculty salary pool. The higher annual salary raises will reward faculty based on teaching quality, research and service to the university. The merit-based structure is set to take effect on July 1, University President John J. DeGioia said at a faculty townhall on Feb.3.

“The goals of this plan are to provide adequate funds to advance continuing faculty as they do their teaching and research and make our salaries more competitive with our peer schools,” Davis said.

To develop a plan, Davis analyzed university economic data for over a decade. In his research, he found that Georgetown faculty salaries tended to be 17 percent lower than those at peer institutions. Salary compression was also a problem — while starting salaries are usually competitive, veteran faculty members’ salary hikes are not high enough.

“You get a situation where starting faculty might make almost the same salary as full professors,” Davis said.

University Provost James O’Donnell added that compensation can attract faculty who might otherwise opt to teach at other colleges or universities.

“The key thing is that we are committed to doing our best to pay our faculty competitively so that we can recruit and retain faculty of the highest quality in an increasingly competitive market,” O’Donnell said in an email. “Bringing together the best faculty with the best students is the core of our life as a university, so faculty salaries and student financial aid are two of our very highest strategic priorities.”

The funds for the salary increases will come from tuition — which will climb by 2.9 percent next year — and from salary “recycling,” through which the higher salaries no longer paid to retired professors are used both for the lower salaries of associate professors and for the faculty salary pool.

“It’s … an improvement over the previous plan because it calls for raises in compensation for faculty when they are promoted to associate or full professor and also puts aside additional funds for truly exceptional faculty merit,” Terrence Reynolds, theology department chair, said in an email.

Davis presented his data to the Main Campus Planning Committee, a group consisting of all the deans, some student representatives and faculty members. The committee drafted the plan in the spring of 2010.

While Davis led the project, other participating faculty members involved audited the plan, according to economics professor Robert Cumby, lead faculty member on the MCPC.

“[Davis] really did the bulk of the research, and we provided input, provided questions and reviewed the practices proposed in the plan,” he said. “We asked the question of whether these are the kinds of disciplines around hiring we want to adopt.”

The pay scheme was approved by the MCPC on Oct. 5 and unanimously approved by the Main Campus Executive Faculty on Oct. 22.

“There were initially some reservations, but the overwhelming sentiment was: ‘This is better than we expected given the economic situation,'” Cumby said. “The plan respects the university’s financial situation. … It is a very clearheaded and responsible plan.”

In addition to providing more funds for salary increases, the new policy accounts for necessary salary increases because of inflation over the next five years.

“In the previous plan, the annual merit increase rate was set based on the previous year’s inflation rate, … which made it difficult for the university to plan for salary increases,” Davis said.

The inclusion of expected inflation rates in the plan allows the university to better outline its budget allotment for faculty pay, according to Cumby.

“It’s good planning and budgetary practice to have a sense of where we’re going and what the implications of that are, so that management and budgeting are more closely aligned,” he said. “Overall, I think it reflects really well on the really thorough analytics that [Davis] brought to the table and the administration’s commitment to paying competitive salaries.”