UK investing more in the people who will advance Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 14, 2024) — University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto said Friday that UK’s proposed budget for fiscal year (FY) 2024-25 represents the largest investment in the institution’s employees in its history.

“Our people power our progress in advancing Kentucky,” Capilouto told members of the UK Board of Trustees, who were considering the university’s FY 2024-25 budget of nearly $8.4 billion. “More than 26,000 UK employees — our community — support the success of nearly 34,000 students, treat and heal more than 45,000 patients each year, conduct research toward solving our commonwealth’s most intractable challenges and serve in every community of our state. They are focused as never before on how we help the state we were created to serve become healthier, wealthier and wiser tomorrow than it is today.”

Examining only the university’s undesignated General Funds:

• The university will invest nearly $30 million in FY 2024-25 on increases in compensation and benefits including more than $18 million for a salary increase pool and more than $9 million to help offset increases in health insurance costs which are also increasing nationally.
• It’s the largest salary increase pool of funds in more than a decade.
• It is the 11th time in 12 years that UK has been able to offer increases in compensation for employees — an unprecedented series of investments in UK’s people.
• UK also will increase the amount of money invested back in colleges to align with Kentucky’s priorities for the future. 
• Last year — through three models that help align funding support with institutional and state priorities — UK invested nearly $26 million to its colleges. 
• Those dollars are awarded for performance in areas such as enrollment growth, student credit hours, degrees awarded and work-life survey results among employees.

“We are a community that cares. We are a community committed to advancing Kentucky. We can best continue — and expand — those efforts and deepen that commitment even more by investing in a sustained way to support the people who do the work,” Capilouto said. “This budget reflects an ongoing effort, over many years, to support the people in classrooms, research labs, hospitals and clinics, in our facilities, on our grounds across farm fields and in cities and towns throughout Kentucky who make so much progress possible for our state.”