Faculty Compensation
Regular academic-year letters of appointment for full-time faculty and lecturers specify a level of compensation for the full term of the appointment, but a faculty member may choose to be paid this amount in 10 equal payments corresponding to the term of the appointment or in 12 equal installments over the full calendar year (Deferred Pay Option). Faculty have the opportunity to choose the Deferred Pay Option each academic year as part of the academic-year appointment letter, but once a method of payment has been selected, it may not be changed until the next academic year's appointment.
Merit raises are determined each year based on faculty members' annual evaluations. The Faculty Workload and Merit Evaluation Policy (BU-PP 706) governs how various faculty workloads affect the determination of the annual evaluation and, thus, the merit raise.
A faculty member who receives a summer letter of appointment generally receives compensation at the rate of 10% of the faculty member's salary for the preceding fall and spring semesters for each course of three or more semester hours taught during the summer.
Summer Compensation from Sponsored Projects
Federal regulatory standards for documentation of personnel expenses on sponsored projects (OMB 2 CFR Part 200 Subpart E §200.430) require that salary charges to grants and contracts align with the period that effort is expended on the project(s). That is, salary for effort expended during the academic year must be charged during the academic year, and salary for effort expended during the summer must be charged in the summer.
Baylor faculty will have two options for earning summer compensation related to research. In both cases, the summer pay rate will be determined for each faculty member by dividing the previous academic year’s 10-month base salary by the period to which the base salary applies.
Option 1 – Faculty may choose to devote effort to an externally sponsored project(s) during the summer months of June and July and receive compensation. However, effort committed during the period should be devoted exclusively to the activities supported by that project(s), with the salary charges aligning with the level of effort provided.
Option 2 – When a portion of academic year salary and fringe benefits is charged to a sponsored project(s), the University will place an amount equal to that portion in a special account that can be used by deans to support summer salary. Faculty must work during the months of June and/or July to earn summer salary via this mechanism, and the maximum salary that can be earned during the summer is two months.
Faculty accepting two months of summer compensation, no matter the source, are expected to be working on scholarly and other University activities during the summer months. Compliance with this expectation will be facilitated through a summer assignment.
Any faculty member that charges at least 2 months of salary to a sponsored project(s) between August 1 and July 31 of the following year and accepts a summer assignment focused on research is eligible to receive a research incentive worth 13.33% of their 10-month base salary. The research incentive is a supplemental payment, distributed in June and July payroll cycles, and may not be charged to a sponsored project(s).
Faculty with a summer assignment that is devoted exclusively to research and for which the source of salary for the two-month period is tied to external funding are allowed to earn a maximum of 33.33% of their 10-month academic year salary during the summer (i.e., 20% from external dollars and/or academic year salary release + 13.33% research incentive). Anyone that does not have two full months of summer salary supported by external research dollars and/or academic year salary release may only earn a maximum of 25% of their 10-month academic year salary via a combination of teaching, research, and/or other activities.