Michigan State University giving $1,500 bonuses to campus employees

Michigan State University is giving $1,500 bonuses to campus employees amid complaints from faculty and staff over their compensation following pandemic pay cuts, The Lansing State Journal reported. 

University President Samuel Stanley Jr. announced the bonuses in a letter to the school’s staff on Monday. The one-time payouts will go out to regular and temporary staff employees, academic and support staff, research and post-doctoral fellows, and graduate teaching and research assistants. 

“Together we have faced unprecedented challenges in the wake of a global pandemic,” Stanley wrote in the letter. “As we conclude this semester, I want to offer our deepest gratitude for all you have been doing every single day to advance MSU’s vital mission.”

Staff employees that were hired before Sept. 1 and who continue to be employed as of Jan. 1 are eligible for the bonuses, according to the Journal.

The school announced 2 percent raises last month for nonunion faculty and academic staff who were hired before June 30. 

The initiative comes as university staff have raised questions about their compensation after taking pay cuts due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Journal reported. 

The school’s Faculty Senate has since asked the school to pay back the lost wages, arguing that the school didn’t take the financial hit it budgeted for due federal stimulus funds. 

“This gesture is independent of the request to return involuntary cuts to pay,” Faculty Senate representatives Karen Kelly-Blake and Jack Lipton said in an email statement to the Journal.

“The retirement and salary cuts alone, independent of missing pay raises, cost the average faculty member about 9.5% of their annual salary. This bonus comes nowhere close to replacing that loss.”