推荐杏吧原创

Calculating faculty salary, percent effort and person months for sponsored project budgets

Last updated: April 2021

When budgeting for faculty salaries and fringe benefits, we take into account three main factors: Institutional Base Salary, contract type, and the amount of effort proposed on the project.

Institutional base salary

Institutional Base Salary is found in Workday, on the Compensation screen of the employee’s detail screen.

Contract/appointment types

A-contract faculty members are under contract for the full calendar year (12 months).

B-contract faculty members are under contract for the academic year, usually 168 or 169 days. Using 21 as the average number of working days per month, the academic contract period is 8 months. In addition, B-contract faculty are eligible to receive overload salary for time worked on non-contract days. There are usually 81 or 82 non-contract days available for overload assignments.

Information on the number of contract and non-contract days available can be found on the University’s Human Resources website.

Effort

Effort is the amount of time that is committed to a project. In addition to dollar amounts, there are two main metrics that sponsors may utilize on their budget forms to quantify effort: percent effort and person months. Both are discussed below.

To calculate total salary request on a proposal budget based on percent effort

A-contract faculty

  1. Multiply the Institutional Base Salary by the percent of effort proposed on the project to calculate the salary request.
  2. Multiply the salary request by the appropriate fringe benefit rate to calculate the fringe benefit request.
  3. Add the salary request and the fringe benefit request to calculate the total salary + fringe request.
Example
  • Step 1
    • Institutional base salary: $100,000
    • Percent effort on project: 10%
    • Salary request: $10,000
  • Step 2
    • Salary request: $10,000
    • Fringe benefit rate: 31%
    • Fringe benefit request: $3,100
  • Step 3
    • Salary request: $10,000
    • Fringe benefit request: $3,100
    • Total salary + fringe request: $13,100

B-contract faculty, academic contract period

The Institutional Base Salary for B-contract faculty is based on a 168- or 169-day academic contract period, which translates to an 8-month budget period.

Example
  • Step 1
    • Institutional base salary: $100,000
    • Percent effort on project: 50%
    • Salary request: $50,000
  • Step 2
    • Salary request: $50,000
    • Fringe benefit rate: 31%
    • Fringe benefit request: $15,500
  • Step 3
    • Salary request: $50,000
    • Fringe benefit request: $15,500
    • Total salary + fringe request: $65,500

B-contract faculty, non-contract (overload) days

When calculating salary requests for B-contract faculty during non-contract periods, use the number of days proposed on the project to calculate salary.

Example
  1. Calculate the daily rate by dividing the Institutional Base Salary by the number of days in the contract period.
    • Institutional base salary; $84,000
    • Number of days in contract period: 168
    • Daily rate: $500
  2. To calculate the salary for non-contract days, multiply the daily rate by the number of non-contract days to be worked:
    • Daily rate: $500
    • Number of non-contract days to be worked: 82
    • Non-contract salary request: $41,000
  3. Then multiply the non-contract salary request by the appropriate fringe benefit (with or without retirement) rate to calculate the fringe benefit request.
    • Non-contract salary request: $41,000
    • Fringe benefit rate: 17.25%
    • Fringe benefit request: $7,073
  4. Finally, add the non-contract salary request and the fringe benefit request to calculate the total non- contract salary + fringe request.
    • Non-contact salary request: $41,000
    • Fringe benefit request: $7,073
    • Total salary + fringe request: $48,073

Converting number of non-contract days to percent effort

Percent effort for non-contract days is calculated by dividing the number of non-contract days to be worked by the total number of non-contract days available.

Example

  • Number of non-contract days to be worked: 60
  • Number of non-contract days available: 82
  • Percent effort for non-contract days: 73%

Converting percent effort to number of non-contract days

To convert percent effort to number of non-contract days, multiply the percent effort proposed on the project by the total number of non-contract days available.

Example

  • Percent effort on project: 50%
  • Number of non-contract days available: 82
  • Number of non-contract days to be worked: 41

To convert percent effort to person months

Sponsors may require effort to be proposed in terms of Person Months.

A-contract faculty

A-contract faculty propose effort on a Calendar month basis. Multiply the percent effort proposed to the project by 12 months to calculate the number of Calendar months.

Example
  • Percent effort on projects: 15%
  • Multiplied by 12 months: 12 months
  • Number of calendar months on projects: 1.8

B-contract faculty

B-contract faculty usually propose effort in Academic months plus Summer months if they plan on working during both contract and non-contract periods. At UNR there are 8 Academic months and 4 Summer months. Although funders use the term Summer months, at UNR the term refers to all non- contract days available for overload assignments, regardless of when they are worked.

Example
  • Step 1
    • Percent effort in contract period: 30%
    • Multiplied by 8 months: 8 months
    • Number of academic months on project: 2.4
  • Step 2
    • Percent effort in non-contract period: 30%
    • Multiplied by 4 months: 4 months
    • Number of summer months on project: 1.2

To convert number of non-contract days to Person Months

To convert the number of non-contract days to Person Months requires first calculating the number of working days in a Person Month. Divide the total number of non-contract days available by the number of non-contract months: 82 days / 4 months = 20.5 days. Rounded up, there are an average of 21 working days per non-contract month.

Divide the number of non-contract days to be worked by 21 to calculate the Summer months proposed on the project.

Example

  • Number of non-contract days to be worked: 82
  • Divided by 21: 21 average working days per non-contract month
  • Summer months: 3.9 rounded to 4 months

Sample Scenarios:

  1. An A-contract faculty member plans to commit 30% effort to the proposed project. 30% x 12 months = 3.6 Calendar
  2. A B-contract faculty member plans to commit 30% effort during the academic contract period and 100% effort during the non-contract period. First calculate the Academic months: 30% x 8 months = 2.4 Academic months. Then calculate the non-contract/summer months: 100% x 4 months = 4 Summer

Sponsored Projects recommends inserting the following statement in proposal budget narratives regarding the 8 + 4 person months:

For the calculation of effort, the 推荐杏吧原创, uses eight months for academic months and four months for summer months.