The definitions described below also apply to Compensation terminology.

• Career Ladder: The predetermined progression through a job family from an entry-level position to higher-level positions based on increasing qualifications, skills, competencies, or responsibility within a specified career field.
• Compa-ratio: The percentage of an individual’s pay to the average of the job and market. A Compa-ratio should be within +/- 20 percent of the job or market average.
• Competency: The level of an individual’s essential knowledge, skills, and abilities required for effective performance of a task properly. These activities are linked to the field of work and are validated through direct observation, assessment, or demonstration.
• Demotion: The involuntary assignment of an employee to a lower position in the University’s hierarchical structure.
• Department: The unit of administration.
• Equity: The principle that employees should be compensated equally within internal and external markets for work requiring comparable skills, responsibilities, and effort 
• Essential Functions: The fundamental job duties within the job description. A position must contain at least 80 percent of the essential functions to be assigned to job title.
• Job: The performance of a set of a collection of tasks, functions, and responsibilities that an employee is responsible to conduct.
• Job Average: An average compensation for a job at the University determined by comparing business unit, school, or campus averages to determine the job’s average. When no University job average is available, the job average will be based on the market average.
• Job Description: Each job title captures a unique job role and has a corresponding description of the duties, minimum requirements, and knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the job. Jobs that have multiple incumbents doing very similar roles (i.e., occupation) will have the same job title and job description.
• Job Family: The predetermined progression from an entry-level job to higher-level job based on increasing skills, competencies, or responsibility within a specified career field.
• Job Level: A level of expertise within a job family. Examples are specialist, manager, and director .
• Job Level Division: Each job level will have two or three divisions that define the minimum, intermediate, or advanced qualifications, experience, and competencies to perform at that level.
• Job Title: A University title of a specific job.
• Independent Judgment: The amount of latitude an individual is given in performing their job.
• Intralevel Reporting: This is prohibited (i.e., managers and their subordinates in the same reporting line should not be in the same salary grade.)
• Internal Job Value: Assignment of a job within UMB that reflect the relative internal (department, school, or campus) value of the job utilizing job average as a guide.
• Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: Key learned skills that enable an employee to be competent in functions the job. 
• Level of Supervision: Each job has a level of supervision required by the immediate supervisor of the individual to ensure the job is accurately performed. Required supervision may be found at the contributor and specialist levels.
• Market Average: This includes compilation of market data averages for a particular job.
• Market Data: For the University of Maryland, Baltimore, this is compiled from various sources. Salary data is collected from national, Mid-Atlantic or Northeast regions, and the local market, including the Baltimore-Washington corridor and Baltimore City.  
• Minimum Qualifications: Necessary minimum training/education and experience required to perform the major functions of the job. Most UMB jobs at pay level F and above require postsecondary degrees.
• Pay Level: A unit in a system of monetary compensation with a defined minimum, midpoint, and maximum of each.
• Position: A position is unique to the required functions, qualifications, knowledge, skill, and abilities and usually assigned to a single individual and position number. 
• Promotion: The assignment of an employee to a new position in the University’s hierarchical structure through a competitive recruitment process. 
• Reevaluation: The review of qualifications and business need of a position to determine the classification of the position. Synonymous with reclassification.
• Salary Structure: A set of pay levels that encompass the competitive salary rates in the marketplace.
• Vertical Loading: Increasing skills, competencies, or responsibilities within a specified job family or career ladder.