SALARIES & COMPENSATION

Reference: Handbook, Vol. II, Chapter 24
Dean's Office contacts: Linda Nelson, Sue Barnhart

• Minimum rates
• Merit salary increases
• Salary increase when promoted
• Outside professional work
• Excess compensation

Minimum rates. The University establishes minimum full-time, monthly rates at which a unit may pay faculty members. The salary floors apply to persons appointed into permanent positions as well as to those in temporary, visiting, acting, affiliate, or clinical positions. The salaries listed below are minimums--the actual salary established for an individual should be based on the candidate's qualifications (training, experience, etc.).

Effective July 1, 2006 the University's minimum floors for the various professorial ranks and for all other faculty titles including Research Associates and Senior Fellows are:

The minimum salary floors will be adjusted on September 1, 2008, as follows:

All faculty appointments in the College of Arts and Sciences must be paid at or above these minimum floors.

Offer letters and appointment forms should list a salary and percent of time. For a temporary appointment paid from temporary funds (for example, leave-vacancy recapture), where the appointment is less than full-time and/or less than nine months, the percent of time is usually based on credits for the course(s) taught, whether day or evening course offerings. The following percentages may be used for these temporary, less-than-full-time appointments:

for a 1-credit course, 10% time
for a 3-credit course, 30% time
for a 4-credit course, 40% time
for a 5-credit course, 50% time

For example, the total minimum salary for a Lecturer Part-Time, nine-month basis, for a 5-credit course for one quarter would be $3,329 x 50% x 3 months = $4,994 (rounded to nearest dollar).

The instructor must teach a course every quarter that he/she is paid (unless an exemption to the Instructional Responsibilities Policy has been granted by the Divisional Dean and Provost).

When a Research Associate is teaching a course, his/her salary rate normally does not change (the minimum rates do not apply). Any exception to this should be discussed with the Divisional Dean.

Additional salary from the state budget may be earned for summer teaching, administrative duties, etc. Additional salary is not paid for teaching in the Evening Degree Program during the nine-month academic year.

Nine-month-salaried faculty who direct outside-funded research projects can earn up to one month of salary beyond eleven months. For any pay period beyond 11.5 months in a given year, the faculty member must write a letter which states the need and intention to devote full effort to the responsibilities undertaken. This letter is sent to Academic Human Resources.

The National Institutes of Health set limitations on the levels of salary that faculty may receive for compensated efforts on funded grants and contracts. The current NIH limit is $15,291 per month for 100% effort. (See the NIH site for information: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/salcap_summary.htm) Salary payments to the University-authorized base salary level, if that level exceeds the maximum federal salary level for salary received from NIH, can only come from non-federal sources which do not have effort requirements. These supplemental funds may come from state sources dedicated to support general research duties (like general faculty salary recapture funds), indirect cost revenue funds, or discretionary funds requiring no direct project effort. Questions about the NIH salary limit may be directed to Vicky Palm in the Dean's Office.

Salary increase when promoted. A faculty member receives a salary increase of 7.5 percent when promoted to the Associate Professor level, to the full Professor level, or to Senior Lecturer. The increase is effective on September 16 for nine-month appointments and on July 1 for twelve-month research appointments.

Merit salary increases. The procedures for determining merit recommendations are described in the Handbook, Vol. II, Section 24-55. The recently revised Code continues the practice of collegial merit reviews each year; a new provision is that a faculty member who does not receive a merit salary increase for two consecutive years will be provided with a departmental assistance committee.

Research and WOT faculty members are evaluated for salary increments at the same time and in the same manner as state-funded faculty members.

The faculty activity reports and the faculty conferences with chair provide important documentation in the evaluation of each faculty member's contributions. Both student and collegial teaching evaluations must also be part of an individual's cumulative record (see Teaching evaluations).

Departments should consider faculty members' contributions to research, teaching, and service. Each individual's accomplishments may be distributed differently among these categories in a given year and over time, and greater achievement in one category can compensate for lesser achievement in another. For the unit as a whole, however, about equal portions of available merit funds should be used to reward teaching and research, with a smaller (but significant) portion used to reward service. Teaching should be rewarded according to overall unit teaching responsibilities (for example, a unit with a large ratio of undergraduate to graduate student credit hours should distribute its merit funds in the same proportion).

Outside professional work. Handbook guidelines allow full-time faculty to engage in remunerated outside work up to thirteen days in each calendar quarter. Arrangements must be approved in advance, and a summary of all outside professional activities for the previous academic year is reported in Autumn Quarter. University forms are used for these purposes. No documentation or forms are required if outside professional work is performed while on leave without pay.

When submitting form UoW 1460, Request for Approval of Outside Professional Work for Compensation, send the intact form (all copies attached) to the Dean's Office, with the appropriate documentation. The Dean's Office will forward the form to Academic Human Resources. When approved, Academic Human Resources will send a copy to the employee, and the Dean's Office will send a copy to the department chair.

An annual summary is reported on UofW form 1461, Summary of Outside Professional & Public Activities. This form may be filled out and submitted on-line (see Academic Human Resources).

Excess compensation. Full-time faculty members are expected to provide full-time teaching, research, and service to the University. These activities are assigned as a part of an individual's duties and are not eligible for excess compensation. Under exceptional circumstances, excess compensation may be paid to University faculty members for work not represented by regular salary. Such compensation cannot exceed 25% of a faculty member's salary in any month; it may not be given for direct service on research grants or contracts; and state funds may not be used for payment.

For College faculty members, excess compensation normally is not given for service to a unit within the College. It may be paid from outside funds for services (such as lectures, seminars, or public educational presentations) to units outside the College, provided that the selection criteria assure that the chosen faculty member is among the best available for the role, that participants are chosen by the same general criteria for parallel roles, and that the time away from the College is within the Handbook guidelines.

Excess compensation must be approved by the Dean's Office, using the following procedures. (1) The paying department sends an email with the excess compensation information (faculty name, faculty title, paying unit name, budget number, total payment amount, reason/work performed, dates of service) to the home department for approval. (2) The home department adds its approval to the email and forwards it to the Dean's Office. (3) The Dean's Office adds its approval and sends the email back to the paying department. (4) The paying department enters the excess compensation into OPUS when the email with the two approvals is received, and pastes a copy of this email into the notes section of the entry.