Some full-time faculty and staff members at Northern Arizona University will return to school next week with a raise, The Arizona Daily Sun reported.

School officials said a 3 percent merit raise is in store for employees at the school who met their job expectations in 2013. However, the bump in salary won't help put most staff "at the level of their peers in comparable universities," The Arizona Daily Sun reported.

"The president has been trying for years, it's been one of his goals, to increase salaries at NAU to at least get close to our peers," Thomas Bauer, a spokesperson for the university, told The Arizona Daily Sun. "What he did this year was make available raises to individuals who met a certain criteria."

Student evaluations, as well as in-class observations and reviews from department heads will determine if professors met their job expectations. Faculty, staff and administrators also have to meet necessary criteria for a merit raise.

Staff members at the university earn far less than their counterparts at other schools in the state, as well as other similar "peer" colleges. The salary of employees at the NAU falls 15 percent below the median income, The Arizona Daily Sun reported citing a 2013 report from the Arizona Board of Regents.

Compared to a group of 15 other peer schools, employees at NAU one of the lowest salaries, The Arizona Daily Sun reported.

"We were dead last and I'm guessing we crept up a couple places, but I don't think we're anywhere near the middle," Bauer said

The coming pay raise, which will appear in February paychecks, isn't likely to remedy that.

Bauer said NAU President John Haeger hopes to increase pay at the university.

"We certainly hope (the raises are permanent), but we don't know what the future holds," Bauer said. "The Legislature is currently debating the state's budget. The president is trying to reward the faculty and staff and at least get us back up to the level of our peers."