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Grant Submission Process
Budget Preparation > Fringe Benefits
Any support for salaries being requested from a sponsor must include corresponding fringe benefits. With the exception of graduate students and undergraduate students (provided that they are enrolled for a minimum of 5 credit hours for graduate students and 6 for undergraduate students, per quarter, including summer), which only require worker's compensation benefits to be included, all other emplo
yees (staff or faculty) must have retirement contributions, Medicare (for those employees hired after 1985), and worker's compensation. The above fringe benefit categories are charged as a percentage of the salary amount requested.
Please note that the retirement percentage for faculty members who contribute at the State Teachers Retirement System at Ohio University is different than that of staff, who contribute using the O
hio Public Employee Retirement System rate. Even if you've opted for an alternative retirement, these contribution rates remain the same. The remaining fringe benefit is group health insurance. This is a flat rate fringe benefit that the University pays from October through June. If you are on a 9-month appointment, and requesting summer salary compensation from a sponsor, you do not need to include this benefit. If, however, you are on an 11 or 12-month contract, or are requesting salary to cover release t
ime, you must prorate the annual health care cost (over 9 months) and include that in the fringe benefit section.
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TIP: If you are budgeting for someone on a 9-month appointment who is requesting summ
er salary, health insurance need not be budgeted. |
Rates can change annually, especially healthcare. When budgeting for multi year grants, please increase health insurance costs by 5-10% for each of the succeeding years beyond the first. Please refer to this web address to find the most current fringe
benefit rates approved by OHIO 's Vice President for Finance and Administration: http://www.ohiou.edu/orsp/orsp_SBER.html . A quick reference guide is available at the bottom of the linked page.
(Click to view examples that illustrate the above text.)
In the rare instance that fringe benefits are unallowable on a proposal for external funds, the PI/PD mus
t inform their chair/director and dean, provide an alternative source of funds to cover the expenses incurred in writing to ORSP. In cases where fringe benefits are omitted or calculated incorrectly and charges of salary are made on an awarded proposal, the corrected amount is automatically taken as a percentage of salary charged, resulting in a reduced amount of funds available for other expenditure categories in the proposal, unless restrictions by the funding agency prohibit
reallocation of the proposed funds without prior written approval. In this case, the PI/PD must garner funds for the fringe benefits from another source such as a department account, dean account or research incentive account.
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DON'T FORGET: In cases where fringe benefits are omitted or calculated incorrectly and charges of salary are made on an awarded proposal, the actual amount that is needed to satisfy OHIO policy is automatically charged. Unless the funding agency restricts the reallocation of proposed funds without prior written approval, this automatic fringe benefit charge results in a reduced amount of funds available for other expenditure categories proposed. |
The inclusion of release time in a proposal means that the salary and wages plus fringe benefits that are requested from a sponsor releases the funds already committed by the university to pay that faculty or staff member. These funds that have been freed up are used to hire a replacement faculty or staff member or an instruct
or to carry out those duties that cannot be completed in your absence, such as classroom instruction. In some cases, a chairperson or dean may not be able to locate someone to replace you in your release time that they have approved. In this case, they may offer you the chance for an “overload” contract. It is deemed overload because it is a contract that compensates you for work over and above your institutional commitment. Definitions can be found in the corresponding categories in the drop-down menu at:
http://portal.finance.ohiou.edu/nalookup .
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