Benefit Plan Updates for 2024–25
The Office of Human Resources, with support from Carnegie Mellon executive leadership, is excited to announce updates to expand coverage in three key university benefits plans: tuition reimbursement, staff parental and maternity leave, and bereavement. These changes are the result of direct employee feedback as well as a 2024 independent benchmarking study that compared CMU’s benefit offerings to company offerings elsewhere in Pittsburgh and nationwide. Unless noted otherwise, these plan changes are effective immediately.
On this page:
Tuition Reimbursement
For faculty and staff:
- We updated the definition of “dependent children” to include stepchildren and the children of domestic partners.
- We expanded program eligibility to include trade school certifications.
- Coming soon: We are working to implement procedures that will allow employees to certify, when applicable, their education as job-related, per IRS tax regulations. As a result, the value of this coursework will be excluded from U.S. federal income taxes as long as the employee’s education is job-related and meets the required certification procedures. This change requires significant technical updates, which are still underway and expected to be complete in early 2025. Once implemented, CMU will no longer be required to withhold federal income taxes for certified, job-related tuition benefits valued at over $5,250 in a calendar year.
For staff:
- We reduced the dependent tuition plan waiting period from five years of service to three years of service.
- We instituted a process to reduce or waive the dependent tuition plan waiting period if a staff member has performed three years of service at another college or university and met certain participation requirements.
- We increased the maximum annual tuition reimbursement benefit for dependents attending a non-CMU institution from $6,820 to $10,230.
- We instituted a policy to automatically link future increases to the tuition reimbursement maximum benefit to CMU’s annual tuition increases.
Learn more about Tuition Benefits.
Staff Parental and Maternity Leave
For staff:
- We increased coverage for a gestational parent, who will now receive 100% of pay for the full period of maternity leave (six to eight weeks, depending on the type of birth) through our Short-Term Disability program. Prior to this change, our plan covered the first four weeks of the leave at 100% of pay and the remaining two to four additional weeks at 60% of pay.
- We increased coverage of our parental leave program to 100% of pay for six weeks. This change represents an expansion of four additional weeks of full-pay coverage. The parental leave program provides leave for parents and legal guardians within 12 months of the birth or placement for adoption, foster care or legal guardianship.
Learn more about Staff Parental and Maternity Leave.
Bereavement
For faculty and staff:
- We increased time off with pay from three days to five days for eligible employees following the death of an immediate family member.
- We redefined “immediate family member” to be more inclusive and cover:
- an employee’s spouse or domestic partner, children, stepchildren, grandchildren, parents, stepparents, grandparents and siblings.
- a spouse’s or domestic partner’s children, grandchildren, parents, stepparents, grandparents and siblings.
- We expanded the program to include new reproductive loss provisions granting five days of paid time off to birth parents in the event of a miscarriage or stillbirth.
Learn more about Bereavement and Loss of a Loved One.
Strategy
These changes were informed by an HR-led effort to better understand employee priorities and preferences. In 2019, HR began surveying faculty and staff and identified the following core areas of concern: health insurance, retirement, time off and tuition.
This finding kicked off a multi-year, multi-phase initiative by CMU to maximize benefit gains for faculty, staff and the institution at large. Some improvements already in place as a direct result of this work include:
- Launching the PrudentRx program to help employees pay less for specialty drugs (translating to copayment savings of up to $1,200 per year per medication).
- Making it easier for employees to enroll in a CMU retirement plan and access retirement planning tools and services.
- Expanding employee medical coverage options to include plans offering a tax-advantaged health savings vehicle (Health Savings Account plans) as well as new, cost-effective HMO options (UPMC HMO and Highmark EPO plans).
- Creating a program that enables employees to donate PTO to other employees in need.
CMU’s efforts to evaluate and evolve our benefits package are ongoing. We remain grateful for faculty and staff input and the opportunity to adjust our benefit offerings accordingly.