Salary and Wages
- Project Personnel
- Calculating Salaries
- Calculating Merit Increases and Range Adjustments
- Summer Salaries for Nine-Month Appointees
- Cost Sharing Personnel Costs
- Salary Cap
- Employee Salary Range Projections
Project Personnel
When providing information about project personnel, follow the sponsor's guidelines and University policies.
List only UCR project personnel in this category. Salary and wage costs associated with non-UCR personnel must be treated either as consultant costs or as a subcontract. Project personnel usually includes faculty, technicians, post-docs, graduate students and other personnel who are essential to perform the project.
Calculating Salaries
Calculate all project personnel costs using actual salaries. If the individual who will fill a position is not known, calculate the salary by using the mid-point salary from the appropriate UCR salary scale.
Never express personnel costs or effort in terms of hours, except for student, casual and per diem employees who are paid by the hour.
Calculating Merit Increases and Range Adjustments
Project anticipated merit increases and range adjustments as appropriate for each position in each budget period. There is a six- to nine-month delay between proposal submission and award, so remember to calculate personnel costs using current actual salaries plus any merit or cost of living increases anticipated between proposal submission and the proposed start date.
Summer Salaries for Nine-Month Appointees
List summer salary for nine-month instruction and research appointees using one-ninth, two-ninths or three-ninths of the base salary or apporpirate fractions thereof (e.g., half of a summer month) to calculate the amount requested. Some sponsors (e.g., NSF) restrict summer salary compensation to no more than two months.
Cost Sharing Personnel Costs
Cost sharing that is offered and quantified anywhere in a proposal will become a legally binding obligation upon UCR if the sponsor makes an award in response to the proposal. This obligation includes the requirement to track and report the costs that UCR shared to fulfill its commitment. Please note the University does not cost share on projects proposed to, or funded by, for-profit sponsors.
Cost sharing faculty (nine-month instruction and research appointee) salaries associated with effort contributed during the academic year should only occur, or be offered, when a governmental or non-profit sponsor requires that the commitment of such effort be treated as cost sharing. If salaries of faculty or other project personnel will be offered as cost sharing, do so by listing the percent of effort to be funded by the sponsor as a single budget line item and the level of effort to be cost shared by the University as a different line item.
Example: In response to sponsor mandated cost sharing, a principal investigator will contribute 10% of her effort during the academic year to perform the proposed research. The first line of the personnel budget should indicate the 10% effort and request $0 for salary and $0 for associated fringe benefits. The next line in the personnel budget should be used to request an appropriate amount for the principal investigator's summer salary (commensurate with the level of effort to be devoted to the project during the summer period).
Salary Rate Cap
If an individual's salary rate exceeds a salary rate cap imposed by sponsor policy (e.g., NIH salary rate cap), list the institutional base salary (negotiated salary) in the budget, but calculate salary costs using the maximum salary rate allowed under the cap. This methodology must be disclosed in the budget justification. (Note: The amount of salary in excess of the salary rate cap is an unallowable cost and is not eligible for University cost sharing.)
Employee Salary Range Projections
The table on the Salaries tab in the Quick Reference section of this web site shows projected salary increases and should be used in calculating all contract and grant proposal budgets.