Summer Pay Guidelines

Generally, rate of pay is based on credit hours of the course and figured at the rate of one credit hour generating 3.33% of the previous academic year's full‑time compensation rate, but units may determine other methods that do not exceed this maximum. Financial considerations may involve a rate of pay that is equivalent to the adjunct rate.

For example, a faculty member teaching a three credit hour course and a two credit hour course would have a summer salary at 16.65% of the previous year’s compensation rate (i.e., 5 credit hours x 3.33%). Teaching two 3-credit hour courses during the summer is considered a full summer load. Full-time 10-month faculty may teach up to 6 credits without overload approval. Appointments beyond the norm may be made in cases of institutional need, to a maximum salary of 27.5% of the preceding academic year rate. This 27.5% limit applies when faculty are only teaching.

Should the course be offered in a format other than the typical six‑week session, rate of pay will still be based on the credit hours (e.g., a 3 credit hour course will be equivalent to 10% of the previous full‑time rate whether the course is offered in a five or seven-week format).

For 10-month AC1 employees, teaching two three-credit hour courses during the summer is considered a full summer load. They may teach up to six credits without overload approval. 1 credit hour - 6.66 standard hours (SH); 3 cred hr=20 SH; 6 cr hr=40 SH.

To hire a 10-month faculty member for one or two months during the summer, hire them with a 12-month Hire eDoc. Then on August 1, you will submit a Maintain Position eDoc to transfer them into their 10-month position. The effective end date and begin date should be the same, so there is no break in service. This allows the employee to be paid and receive benefits before their contracted position begins. 

If a 10-month faculty member is retiring or resigning, their last day worked is May 31 unless they are teaching in the summer. If they teach, their last day worked is:

• Summer 1 Only: June 30
• Summer I and II or Full Term: July 31
• Summer II, but not Summer I: Appoint as AC2. Term their 10-month appointment and hire as AC2.

If you have promised moving expenses to a 10-month faculty member, they will not receive the payment until their first regular paycheck of the academic year.

The university standard hours/effort per 1 credit-hour for adjunct summer teaching will be 4. An adjunct may teach a maximum of 6 credit hours over the combined summer sessions. This includes all IU campuses as well as IU Online. Please ask your adjuncts to let you know if they are teaching for any other department before submitting your eDoc.

1 credit hour = 4 standard hours (SH); 3 cr=12 SH; 6 cr=24 SH.

No overloads possible.

Normal summer appointments for activities other than teaching, on general funds or on outside (grants and contracts) funds may be made during any period from the day after commencement (May 16, 2026) until one week prior to the beginning day of fall classes. Long‑standing university practice requires that the weekly rate not exceed 2.5% of the previous academic year’s compensation rate. Federal funds must be spent in keeping with these university guidelines.

Consequently, the maximum appointment would be for 13 weeks or a total appointment based on 32.5% of the previous academic year full‑time rate (i.e., 13 weeks at 2.5%). However, some granting agencies may have restrictions on how much summer effort they will support. Therefore, appointments made to grant accounts should be made in accordance with any restrictions. 

In addition, in order to meet auditing requirements, the eDocs should show a five-day appointment for each 2.5% academic year salary claimed; i.e., a nine‑week appointment that begins on Monday must conclude on Friday nine weeks later. In conformity with requirements of 2 CFR Part 220 (Cost Principles for Educational Institutions) of the Federal Office of Management and Budget, we shall be required to have faculty members confirm individual distributions of time and effort devoted to those activities for which they have been appointed and compensated.

A particularly important aspect of this requirement is that persons appointed on grants for 40 standard hours must certify that they actually devoted 40 standard hours of their compensated time on these sponsored projects. As usual, faculty members must be able to attest they were engaged in activities for which they were appointed during their summer appointment.

Combinations of summer appointments for teaching, research, curricular development, or administrative work can be held concurrently as long as the FTE does not exceed 100% during any time interval, (at up to 32.5% of the previous full‑time academic year rate) or 13 weeks of work, and as long as the rate for teaching is calculated at 3.33% per credit hour. 

If a faculty member is committed to teaching 6 credit hours in a summer session, this ordinarily will constitute a full‑time (40 standard hours) commitment and no other type of summer appointment may be held within this time frame without the prior approval of the school dean and the assistant vice chancellor for faculty affairs.

If a summer appointment involves teaching less than six hours in a regularly scheduled summer session, the maximum allowable appointment for assigned research or administrative work must not exceed the 13 week limitation, the 40 standard hour limitation or the 32.5% limitation. For example, a faculty member teaching a 3 credit hour course in a six week summer session could also accept a research appointment for six weeks at an additional 15% of the previous full‑time compensation rate for a combined total summer appointment of 26.5% (i.e., 3 credit hours x 3.33% plus 8 weeks x 2.5% = 20.99%).

Summer appointments for teaching, non-teaching activities or a combination thereof, which are full-time and in excess of eleven weeks may be approved by the associate vice provost for academic programs and initiatives: if recommended by the department chair and dean; if institutional or project need can be demonstrated; if permitted by any granting agency involved; and if the standard hours do not exceed 100% during any period of the appointment.

The faculty member must be ready to attest that the entire period(s) of the appointment(s) will be spent working on the designated project(s)/course(s). In no case will an exception be granted beyond 13 weeks (32.5% of the previous academic year rate).

Use the guide below to determine the appropriate eDoc to process for summer appointments:

• AC1, AC2, AC3 10-month: Create Summer Pay (preferred for AC2) - For summer I and summer II, selecting the session the employee is teaching will auto-populate the correct dates to use. For dates outside the regular summer sessions, select Irregular (IRR) and enter the appropriate start and end dates.
• AC1 12-month: Create Additional Pay
• AC2, AC3 12-month: Renew Contract (if the course extends into the fall semester) or Hire
• eDocs must include start and end dates and a total amount. The amount will be paid in equal installments across all months involved. (This does not exactly correspond with when work is done, but it is consistent with the eDoc and fiscal functionality.)
• In the Notes section of the eDoc, you must tell us the name of the course and course number/section for teaching responsibilities, name of the funder (if other than IU) for research responsibilities, or the administrative responsibility. This helps final approvers recognize if the employee is teaching too many credit hours.

You cannot use a regular Adjunct Position Number for AC2 Summer Pay eDocs. Route a "Create Position" eDoc to create a Summer Only position number if one does not exist.

Administrative Post is required on all summer pay eDocs for AC1 and AC2. If the faculty member hasn't taught for three semesters, you will need to add a new Admin Post row. Otherwise, you can extend the End Date on the previous appointment row.

The system does not allow more than one summer pay with the same effective date and earn code. If there is an error message to this effect when saving, try changing the effective date to the next day.

Keep in mind that in order to process a Create Summer Pay eDoc for a summer appointment, a faculty member or lecturer must have been employed with IU on an adjunct or full‑time basis during the previous spring semester. This would include full‑time visiting faculty who were here the previous semester as well.

To determine standard hours for full-time faculty for teaching:

6 credits =      40 Standard Hours, at 20% of previous academic year’s compensation rate

3 credits =      20 Standard Hours, at 10% of previous academic year’s compensation rate

To determine standard hours for adjunct faculty:

6 credits =      24 Standard Hours (maximum for summer)

3 credits =      12 Standard Hours

Graduate students (AC3) appointed during the summer may work up to 40 standard hours without special justification. However, no appointments in excess of 40 standard hours will be allowed. 

In compliance with the Affordable Care Act, students who did not hold an appointment in the preceding spring semester must be appointed on a 12-month student position (not a summer position) to ensure health insurance coverage.

Overloads for 12-month faculty are done with a Create Additional Pay eDoc and selecting Academic Overload (AOV) from the Administer Additional Pay: Additional Pay screen. If a faculty member is appointed to a 12-month position, they cannot be paid as a summer session appointee. They must be paid on an Overload basis. Combinations of summer teaching, research, administrative, and workshop appointments must not exceed 40 standard hours during any time interval.

Any possible exception to this limitation must be approved in advance by the Office of the Provost.

Request for approvals can be sent to ude[dot]ui[at]rhdaca.