Summer Salary Limits for Academic Year Faculty Policy
| Related Policy: | 2 CFR 200; 鶹ѰBoulder Institutional Base Salary Policy Statement |
| Effective Date: | March 1, 2017 |
| Last Reviewed/Updated: | June 3, 2025 |
| Approved by: | Massimo Ruzzene, Senior Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation and Dean of the Institutes |
| Responsible Office: | Research & Innovation Office |
Purpose
Circular 2 CFR 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Princiles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards, issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a branch of the Executive Office of the U.S. President, establishes principles for administrative requirements and costs applicable to federally funded grants, contracts and other agreements. 2 CFR 200 states that the University must establish and consistently implement compensation policies that apply uniformly to all faculty members, regardless of salary funding source. Sections address maximum salary rates for faculty members that can be charged to federal awards during and outside the academic year, and this sets the basis for the campus 3/9ths rule. These Federal rules and this campus policy apply to academic year faculty with a 9-month appointment. This policy is not applicable to faculty paid on a fiscal year 12-month appointment.
Policy Statement
Federal regulations state that the allowable rate of pay for summer scholarly and creative work effort is based on the Institutional Base Salary (IBS), and the maximum that can be earned from federally funded awards in any one month, whether in summer or during the academic year, should not exceed 1/9th of the IBS. For academic year faculty appointments, campus guidelines allow for the maximum of an additional 3/9ths of the IBS to be earned for summer work during the summer months,11 including summer teaching, scholarly and creative work pay in any proportion, administrative appointments, etc., with no month exceeding 1/9th of the IBS. For the majority of faculty, their summer salary limit will be calculated from an IBS composed only of their academic year appointment base salary. However, when the faculty member has an administrative and/or endowed appointment, the academic year appointment base salary will be only a portion of their total IBS salary.
Compensation earned in any given summer month that is derived solely from teaching activities may not be subject to the 1/9th limit. This provision only applies when 1/9th of the faculty’s academic year salary is less than what would be earned by teaching a summer course. If a faculty member has a unique, limited and exceptional circumstance that may merit a waiver of this 1/9th limit, such as when there is a strong curricular need for the teaching of a specific summer course, a written waiver may be requested from the Provost.
Faculty members often receive multiple grants for a single scholarly or creative work area.
- Paid effort should be supported by a proposed salary budget and adequate funding that is consistent with the plan that was agreed to at the time of the award.
- It is essential to ensure salary is not charged to one project for effort expended on a different project, or to pay for salary on a different project solely because funding is available.
- Some sponsors, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), limit salary rates. In cases where a faculty member’s IBS exceeds a sponsor salary rate, the University may pay the difference from university funds. Salary charged to the sponsored project must meet the sponsor salary rate limit requirements.
- The amount of effort devoted to summer scholarly and creative work should correspond to the percentage of the IBS salary being paid by the grant. 100% paid support should reflect no less than a standard 40-hour work week.
Summer salary charged to a scholarly and creative work project must represent actual expended effort.
- Academic year faculty do not accrue paid vacation leave; therefore, planned vacation time that reduces work week effort to less than 40 hours cannot be charged to scholarly and creative work projects.
- Faculty may be able to charge sick leave to sponsored projects during the summer, according to information provided in 鶹ѰBoulder’s Summer Salary Guidelines for Boulder Campus.
- It is inappropriate to have summer salary pay for effort expended during the academic year, regardless of the fund type supporting the summer salary.
When administrative and/or endowed appointment salaries are part of the summer effort and 3/9ths of IBS earnings, only the remaining effort and salary can be earned from teaching and/or scholarly and creative works.
The Summer Salary Calculator and Request Form is not required for those faculty involved solely with summer teaching. However, it is required for faculty who are engaged in summer teaching plus scholarly or creative works or solely involved in scholarly or creative works. To comply with this policy, faculty should request all summer salary by the end of September to be disbursed by the end of October. After October, all requests will require additional justification and approval.
Definitions
Academic year faculty includes tenured and tenure-track (TTT) as well as non-tenure track faculty who have a 9-month appointment (e.g., appointments as Professor, Assistant Professor, Senior Instructor, Instructor). Faculty with 12-month or fiscal year (FY) appointments are excluded from this definition and policy.
Faculty academic year appointment base salary is compensation for a faculty member’s time spent on a mix of scholarly or creative work, instruction, service, administration or other instructional activities according to their workload formulation. It determines the maximum rate that can be charged to sponsored projects.
The academic year base salary is used when determining the NIH salary cap limitation.
The compensation set by the University for faculty academic year salary, whether that faculty member’s time is spent on scholarly or creative work, instruction, service, administration or other instructional activities. 鶹ѰBoulder’s IBS includes academic year salary and any academic year compensation earned from administrative appointments and/or endowed professor or endowed chair appointments. The IBS does not include overload teaching, continuing education appointments, monetary awards, compensation earned for services performed external to the University, administrative salary paid during the summer months or endowed professor or endowed chair stipends paid during the summer months.
Implementation of this Policy
The Department of Human Resources (HR), the Office of the Provost, the Office of Contracts and Grants (OCG), the Office of Faculty Affairs (OFA), and the Research & Innovation Office (RIO) all contributed to the creation of this policy. As stipulated by , each of these units should develop written procedures, as needed, to provide guidance on implementing it.
Related Procedural Statements, Forms, Policies, and Tools
Download the Summer Salary Limits for Academic Year Faculty PDF
Other Resources:
- 鶹ѰBoulder Office of Faculty Affairs Additional Compensation Guidelines for Faculty
- 鶹ѰBoulder Policy Institutional Base Salary Policy Statement
- Summer Salary Guidelines for Boulder Campus
History
| Changes | Date | Approved By |
| Adopted | 3/01/2017 | Terri Fiez |
| Reviewed – no substantial updates | 9/01/2018, 1/01/2019, 1/30/2020 | |
| Minor updates to URLs | 4/16/2021 | Denitta Ward |
| Minor updates to URLs, removal of reference to reporting summer effort on FRPA, updated “research” to “scholarly and creative work” to reflect changes to APS 1022 | 2/28/2022 | Colisse Franklin |
| Change of application of policy from only TTT faculty to all AY faculty, addition of AY faculty definition, change of approver to Massimo Ruzzene, minor edits | 4/1/2023 | Massimo Ruzzene |
| Reviewed to ensure policy is consistent with change in faculty merit cycle such that 3/9ths limit year changed from fiscal year to calendar year | 3/01/2024 | Massimo Ruzzene |
| Updated to include information about sponsor salary caps and sick leave | 6/03/2025 | Alexa Van Dalsem |