Classification & Compensation

Cornell's faculty and staff compensation programs aim to support outstanding education and services through competitively recruiting, developing, engaging, and rewarding high-quality faculty and staff.

Job Structure

Cornell has approximately 700 staff job profiles that are organized into 15 job families (for example, academic support, finance, IT, student support, health) across 9 pay bands (A through I). Each staff position is placed into a job profile classification within this structure based on the required qualifications and complexity of work.

Use the Career Navigator tool to explore generic job descriptions; pay ranges can be found at the bottom of each description.

Position Descriptions

A Staff Position Description (SPD) defines a position for classification, recruitment, and performance evaluation. It is important to prepare an SPD that realistically encompasses the duties and responsibilities of the position as well as identifying the critical skills and behavioral competencies, level of education and experience needed to achieve top performance.

Staff Compensation

Cornell pays competitively in relation to the pay for comparable work at comparable employers within demonstrated labor markets. Market competitive pay varies by job family and job classification throughout the nine pay bands. Individual pay is based on responsibilities, position-related qualifications, experience and performance in concert with college/unit guidelines

People Leaders should confer with their college/unit HR representative for specific pay data on any job classification. 

Recognition Opportunities

People Leaders should also familiarize themselves with opportunities available to staff for performance-based pay advancement. This can be essential to employee satisfaction and retention.