Chapter 11 |
Maximum Levels of Appointments and Summer Session Appointments |
11.01 |
OVERLOADS FOR FACULTY, ACADEMIC STAFF, AND LIMITED APPOINTEES |
The salary received by full-time faculty, academic staff and limited appointees is considered full compensation for University activity during the appointment periods. Professionals with unclassified appointments (generally exempt from Fair Labor Standards Act [FLSA] provisions) are expected to work without extra pay until their assignments are completed. Under extraordinary circumstances, a temporary base adjustment or overload request may be approved if a need can be sufficiently demonstrated. Approval from the dean/director’s office and the Academic Personnel Office (APO) must be obtained prior to overload effective date.
Assignments Involving a Recurring or Continuing Commitment
- Recurring needs for a faculty, academic staff or limited appointee to assume special responsibilities must be handled through some method other than overload payments, preferably by making an adjustment in the employee's other duties in order to release time to meet special recurring responsibilities. Alternatively, a temporary base adjustment may be appropriate (see Temporary Salary Base Adjustments below).
- In those cases where an employee's duties are expected to include a significant continuing commitment to outreach activities, that expectation should be clearly built into the job description and salary structure for the position. The need for overload payment or other budgetary adjustment should arise only when there is no way to relieve the person from other duties in order to permit the desired level of outreach activity and is usually in response to an unexpected or unpredictable program need.
Unusual, Short-term or Nonrecurring Assignments
When unanticipated assignments are of an unusual, short-term or nonrecurring nature, overload payments may be approved if sufficient need is demonstrated.
- Payments are subject to the limitation in Ch. 16.417(2)(a) of the Wisconsin Statutes:
No individual . . . who is employed or retained in a full-time position or capacity with an agency or authority may hold any other position or be retained in any other capacity with an agency or authority from which the individual receives, directly or indirectly, more than $12,000 from the agency or authority as compensation for the individual's services during the same year.
- The $12,000 overload limit is monitored on a calendar year basis (January 1 to December 31) and covers all payments made during that period of time, regardless of when the overload assignment was actually completed (i.e., if an assignment is completed in December, but payment isn't made until January, the money earned in December will be considered part of the following year's $12,000 overload limitation).
- If an employee exceeds the allowable overload limit, he or she will be ordered to forfeit the amount in excess of $12,000.
- UW-Madison is considered a single agency for the purpose of the overload limitation defined in Ch. 16.52(7) of the Wisconsin Statutes. Therefore, an individual who is employed in a full-time position at UW-Madison, or any other UW institution or state agency, may not receive more than a total of $12,000 during the same calendar year from all other assignments at UW-Madison.
- UW-Extension and each of the other UW System campuses are considered separate agencies. Therefore, an individual may accept assignments at other UW System campuses (or other state agencies) as long as he or she does not receive more than $12,000 from any one agency.
- Overload payments must be reasonable in terms of the original base salary and the time spent, effort involved, and level of skills required for the additional assignment.
- Federal cost principles do not permit charging more than 100% of an individual's base salary to federal awards and/or nonfederal funds that are used as cost sharing on a federal award. The only exception to this restriction is where the arrangement has been specifically provided for in the award or approved in writing by the sponsoring agency.
- Summer Salary (9-month academic year appointment)
- Faculty and academic staff on an academic year (9-month) appointment are ineligible to earn additional overload payments during any summer they earn 3/9ths summer salary.
- The combination of summer "ninths" salary earned by faculty and academic staff on an academic year (9-month) appointment, plus any overloads earned during summer may not exceed 3/9ths salary during any one summer. The 8/9ths policy also applies (see below).
- The maximum summer "ninths" salary, plus summer overload payments earned by faculty and academic staff on an academic year (9-month) appointment may not exceed eight months summer salary over any three-year period.
EXAMPLE: 2/9ths + 3/9ths + 2.5/9ths + 1/2 month salary (.5/9ths) overload payment during one summer only = maximum 8/9ths summer salary allowed over a three-year period.
Overload payments require the prior approval of the employee's home department and dean, the department and dean creating the overload, if different, and the Academic Personnel Office. [See attached Overload Request form, Appendix 11-A.]
If approved, lump sum payments can be made directly to the employee subject to any applicable extramural funding restrictions and to the Wisconsin statutory $12,000 calendar year limit.
Alternatively, if the rules governing the source of the additional funding permit, payment can be made to the employee's department as "a purchase of institutional service" from that unit, in lieu of making a direct payment. In either case, the calculation of payment should include preparation time and follow-up activities as part of the overload duties.
Unanticipated assignments of an unusual, short-term or nonrecurring nature may also be handled with a temporary salary base adjustment. However, temporary base adjustments typically are for longer periods of time, e.g., 6 months, a semester. As with overload payments, any temporary base adjustment must be reasonable in terms of the original base salary and the time spent, effort involved, and level of skills required for the additional assignment. If current title is in the Category A academic staff, the range maximum cannot be exceeded. For information about requesting a temporary salary base adjustment and the approval process, see Chapter 10.
For more detailed and specific information, consult §16.417(2) Wis. Stats.