Chancellor, top Pitt officials to not receive pay increase in 2021

Pitt’s top officials will not receive a pay increase for 2021, in accordance with a University-wide salary freeze put in place because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Pitt spokesperson Kevin Zwick said Monday that the compensation committee of the Board of Trustees, which must approve any changes in pay to top administrators, would not hold its traditional December meeting because there was “no new business” for the committee to take up. Chancellor Patrick Gallagher and other officials have received pay bumps in each of the last two years.

Gallagher and top officials pledged this spring that they would donate part of their salaries to Pitt’s general scholarship fund, which provides tuition assistance to students. The chancellor donated 20% of his 2020-21 salary, and the eight senior vice chancellors under him donated 10% of their respective salaries.

The University is currently operating under a strict budget, with a freeze in place on most hiring. Tuition and fees are flat this year, while Pitt applied two different budget cuts to operating units — a permanent one at roughly 3.7% and a temporary one at around 5%.

Gallagher said this summer that the University has worked to avoid or delay all possible expenses next year, such as travel or equipment costs. It is also working to try and streamline internal services as much as possible, such as the recent Pitt IT consolidation.

“We want to minimize the impact of reduced revenues and increased costs on our core functions and employees,” Gallagher said.