After Year of Budget Cuts, Some Harvard Schools Resume Merit Raises

Harvard will allow schools to resume merit-based raises for the 2026-27 fiscal year, an early sign that some corners of the University are stabilizing after last spring’s dramatic federal funding cuts forced campuswide austerity measures.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard Kennedy School, the Harvard Business School, and the Harvard School of Public Health will each provide pay increases in the coming year. A University spokesperson confirmed Thursday that other schools have also been authorized to offer raises “at their discretion.”

Spokespeople for Harvard’s other graduate schools did not respond to requests for comment on whether they would resume wage increases.

Harvard first hit the brakes on raises last April as part of a sweeping set of cost-cutting measures imposed after the Trump administration froze $2.2 billion in federal funding to the University.

Since then, Harvard has continued to tighten its belt. Over the last year, nearly every school has announced layoffs, reduced spending, or reassessed its priorities in response to the funding cuts. The University still remains under a hiring freeze.

The return of merit raises suggests that some schools believe those cuts have created enough room to begin restoring employee compensation increases — even as other parts of the University continue to absorb the fallout.

In an April 6 message to staff, HKS executive dean Josh McIntosh announced that eligible non-union staff would receive a three percent increase to their annual base salaries, effective July 1.

Though McIntosh cited “significant financial challenges and a pause in salary increases” over the past year, he said the school was able to “sustain excellence in our teaching, research, engagement, and operations.”

Separately, some staff at Harvard Business School were also told by email that the school had approved three percent merit increases for fiscal year 2027. An HBS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on which employees would be eligible for the raises.

Harvard School of Public Health spokesperson Todd Datz confirmed that faculty, academic appointees, and non-union staff would all receive salary increases for fiscal year 2027.

FAS spokesperson James M. Chisholm also confirmed that the body is resuming merit-based increases, even as it prepares for an administrative restructuring this summer that is expected to centralize operations and eliminate jobs.

The FAS, which is facing a $365 million structural deficit, has imposed some of the University’s deepest cuts over the past year. It halved graduate student admissions slots, slashed non-tenure-track faculty budgets, and halted non-essential capital projects.

Other schools have taken similar steps. The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences cut roughly 40 positions in October, laying off an estimated 25 percent of the school’s clerical and technical union workers. (A SEAS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on whether the school would resume raises.)

On Wednesday, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study announced its own staffing cuts, laying off four employees, eliminating eight vacant positions, and moving three staff members to part-time roles.

In an email to staff, Radcliffe Institute Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin cited “a wide range of federal actions targeting Harvard, cost pressures, and market volatility” and said she was directed by Harvard’s central administration to pursue “structural cuts.”

Though federal funding began to flow back to Harvard after a September court ruling reversed the Trump administration’s cuts, the University’s financial outlook has remained uncertain.

In October, the University reported its first operating loss since the Covid-19 pandemic. And a nearly sixfold increase to the federal endowment tax will take effect in July, adding new pressure to the University’s finances.

Harvard is also still fighting the Trump administration in court on multiple fronts. The government has appealed the September ruling that blocked the funding freeze, and the Department of Justice filed a separate lawsuit in March seeking to recoup nearly $1 billion in research grants.

—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at hcc.35. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.

—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at elisespenner.82. Follow her on X @EliseSpenner.