USF raising pay for faculty, graduate assistants and other employees

The University of South Florida, one of the Tampa Bay area’s biggest employers, is raising pay, school officials said Tuesday at a board of trustees meeting.

The school will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour by the end of the month and increase base salaries for eligible workers by the end of October.

Employees represented by the United Faculty of Florida bargaining unit will receive a lump-sum bonus of $2,000 and a 3.5% base salary increase, plus a 2% base salary increase next year.

The university also will bump up stipends for graduate and doctoral assistants each year for the next three years and cover the full costs of their health insurance premiums.

“Our people are the most important thing to the university,” USF president Rhea Law told board members during the meeting at the St. Petersburg campus.

“We do this because we understand we need to be competitive. We are in a race for talent. We want to retain the good people we have.”

Divya Kumar covers higher education for the Tampa Bay Times, in partnership with Open Campus.