When including salaries in budgets, work with a member of the Pre-Award staff for assistance determining effort and calculating salaries.
Full-Time Salaries
To involve full-time DePaul faculty and staff in your grant project, request funds for their project effort as follows:
Faculty Salaries
- Faculty Academic Year Salary: Faculty can determine what portion of their available academic year effort is appropriate to allocate to a grant proposal project. This allocation should be commensurate with the effort they anticipate expending on the project. Academic year salary is calculated based on 10-month academic year (e.g. 10% academic effort is equivalent to 1.0 person month).
- Faculty Course Releases: Calculate course releases for full-time faculty at 11.1% or 1.11 person months of base salary for each course release.
- Faculty Summer Salary: Calculate summer salary for faculty in desired increments not to exceed 20% effort or 2.0 person months.
Note: faculty on 12-month contracts are not eligible for summer salary.
- Adjuncts and Instructors: As adjunct and instructor contracts typically vary from tenure-track/tenured faculty contracts the above descriptors are not necessarily applicable to them. Faculty in the rank of instructor or adjunct should consult the Office of Research Services (ORS) early in the proposal planning process to determine how to best budget their effort on a sponsored project. Typically ORS consultation with the adjunct or instructor’s Dean’s office is required as part of such discussions.
Full-Time Staff
Calculate effort for full-time staff as a percentage of their annual salary that reflects their time commitment to the project.
New Positions
When new positions will be established under a sponsored project, include full-time salaries of any new faculty or staff who will be hired to work on the grant project.
Part-Time Salaries
Include funds for any DePaul University staff who will be involved with the project on a part-time basis. Salaries for PT employees are calculated as the number of hours allocated to the project at the employee’s hourly rate.
If you are adding hours to a current PT position that could change its classification to FT, please consult with ORS Pre-Award staff.
Student Salaries
Salaries for graduate and undergraduate research assistants or support are usually shown as number of hours or percentage of time multiplied by an hourly rate. As anticipated rates of pay for student work vary by job responsibilities and academic department, ORS suggests that you consult with your academic unit or the Office of Student Employment prior to costing student salaries.
During the academic year, the typical workload for students is a maximum of 20 to 25 hours per week depending on student citizenship status/visa regulations.
Paid Leave
The Chicago Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave Ordinance grants one hour of paid leave for every 35 hours worked. Paid Leave can be used for any reason and applies to anyone who does not already accrue vacation, including adjunct faculty and student employees. Employees not already eligible for vacation time can accrue up to 40 hours of paid leave per year, up to 16 hours can be rolled over at the end of the year, and unused hours will be paid out upon termination.
Please keep in mind when budgeting for positions on grants how paid leave will be covered and whether you're requesting a sufficient number of hours. When staff are hired in a department and on a grant, then the grant will cover the PTO hours. When staff are hired on multiple grants, the first grant they are hired on covers the PTO hours.
More information about paid leave can be found on the benefits website.