University Policy: Overload Payment

University Policy: Human Resources
Date Revised February 5, 2021
Date Effective July 1, 2018 
Responsible University Officers: Provost and Chief Human Resources Officer 
Policy Owner: Chief Human Resources Officer
Policy Contact: Chief Human Resources Officer

POLICY STATEMENT

The salary received by full-time faculty, academic staff, and limited appointees is considered to be full compensation for all work during the period of appointment. Faculty, Academic Staff and Limited Appointees exempt from the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act are expected to expend the total effort necessary to complete their assignments without additional compensation. The chancellor or designee may approve increased compensation in the form of an overload payment in cases where a temporary assignment is undertaken at another UW System institution, or an individual is asked to assume additional short-term responsibilities.

In general, alternatives should be considered before overload payments are granted. Options include an adjustment in the employee’s other duties in order to reassign time to meet new responsibilities; a purchase-of-load arrangement in which funds are transferred into an employee’s department or unit as a purchase of institutional time from the department or unit; or a temporary base adjustment.

Temporary base salary adjustments should be utilized in cases where an employee is appointed in an acting or interim capacity, or to assume temporary responsibilities that are significantly different from those of the employee’s current position. These adjustments do not constitute overload payments. The level of the base salary adjustment appropriate for the new assignment is determined pursuant to UPG 4.04(7).

However, there are instances in which asking an employee to do more than his or her appointment requires is the only viable alternative and overload compensation is appropriate. There may also be other situations in which the individual is asked to assume, on a temporary basis, different duties and responsibilities within the full time appointment period such that the base salary for performing those functions needs to be examined. 

Overloads

• Overload payments may be made where with the consent of the employee, substantial additional work requirements are added to the existing duties of a full-time employee creating a workload in excess of 100% of the employee’s time and the performance of these additional duties is unusual, short-time or nonrecurring in nature.
• Overload payments may also be made where a full-time employee of one UW System institution accepts an institution-approved part-time appointment to perform duties at another UW System institution in addition to his/her full-time position (Financial Administration: Inter- institutional Financial Transactions (F-18) details the procedures for payment between institutions).
• If a staff member is not full-time, additional compensation is not considered an overload.
• Overload payments must be approved, in advance (see Procedures below).
• Overload compensation may not exceed the higher of either 20 percent of the employee’s academic (c-basis/9 month) salary base or annual (a-basis/12 month) salary base or
   $18,000 unless the chancellor or designee determines that good cause exists to exceed this threshold and issues an exception in writing.
• Summer compensation (see Financial Policy F19 for the calculation of summer salary) for academic year (c-basis/9-month) employees is not considered an overload for the purposes of this policy.
• Executive positions: employees appointed to limited appointments who report to the chancellor (his/her designee) or the provost, and meet the definition of an exempt employees. These individuals are ineligible for overload payments.
• Department chairs: chairs report directly to the College Dean and meet the definition of exempt employees. These individuals are ineligible for overload payments, except for exigent circumstances; overloads must be approved by the dean and provost. 
• UW-Platteville supports the cap set at the same dollar amount determined by UW-System Administration. The fiscal year is defined as July 1st of the first year through June 30th of the subsequent year.  This cap will be calculated based upon when the employee receives each overload payment and the fiscal year paid. Note: streaming video payments for faculty teaching distance courses for the Collaborative Engineering Program are included in the calculation of overloads received within a given year.
• Work performed for other state agencies outside of higher education is subject to the state statutory overload limits, which may be less than the UW-System.

REASON FOR POLICY

On occasion, employees may be asked to perform work outside their normal assignments.  In these rare situations where an individual exceeds one hundred percent of his or her normal position responsibilities, an overload request may be approved if the need for additional compensation can be sufficiently demonstrated and the work is not within his or her current job description. 

PROCEDURES

• Overload appointments must be approved by the department chair and dean in advance of the work being performed and payments should be made following work performed, or for projects that extend across several months, on a regular basis during that interval.
• Overload appointments that cover several months will be divided equally across the appropriate payrolls to ensure payment is not made in advance of completion of the work performed.
• The provost has final approval of overload appointments for faculty and instructional academic staff.
• The Vice Chancellor for Administration & Finance has final approval of overload appointments for Non-Instructional Academic Staff and within 30 days of the work completion. 
• Copies of the overload appointment and corresponding HRS paperwork should be submitted to the HR offices in advance of the appropriate payroll cycle.
• Administrative overloads may be calculated based on the value of the duties performed if dissimilar from the employee’s full-time work responsibilities.
• Faculty and Instructional Academic Staff overloads for additional instruction should be based upon the rate assigned to the particular academic area by the Dean of each College.
• Instructional overloads for staff holding non-teaching appointments should be based on the established College instructional academic staff salary structure.
• Academic Staff on a twelve-month appointment may undertake instructional overloads only with the prior approval of their supervisor and submission of an approved alternative work schedule to ensure that the employee’s full time responsibilities are being fulfilled.  During the Winterim term, academic staff on twelve-month appointments who accept instructional assignments will be required to submit an alternative work schedule, where feasible, or take annual leave or personal holidays to cover those times when instruction is being delivered.  
• Faculty and staff have the right to reject overload assignments.  Deans, department chairs, and directors cannot require anyone to work an overload assignment as part of their regular responsibilities.  
• The overload limit is monitored on a fiscal year basis and covers all payments made during that period, regardless of when the overload assignment was worked (i.e., the previous fiscal year).  
• Violation of the overload policy may result in a denial of overload payment.
• For nine-month faculty and nine-month academic staff, Summer Service and Session appointments are governed by UW-Platteville Summer Appointment Policy.

Audit

To ensure compliance with Unclassified Guidelines, forms may be subject to review and audit by UW-System Office of Internal Audit and/or the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau’s review.

FORMS/INSTRUCTIONS

Instructional overload payments

• Tenured and tenure-track faculty are expected to engage in teaching, research, and service for the campus community, which is important for institutional and student success
• Expectations related to teaching workloads are defined by each college and should be applied consistently within each college to ensure an efficient use of budget dollars.
• High quality instruction is an expectation of faculty and academic instructional staff for all of UW-Platteville courses. Using faculty or instructional academic staff to teach overloads in addition to their normal workload assumes that consistent, high-quality instruction will be demonstrated in all course offerings, including the overload assignment.

Administrative overload payments

• Administrative and professional-level positions where a short-term project may be assigned to meet the needs of a particular unit or the campus may be eligible for an overload if the definition of “significant workload” is met and responsibilities cannot be shifted to several staff to accomplish the task without incurring an overload.
• Administrative or academic work performed between multiple appointing authorities (i.e., dual employment) where the workload exceeds one hundred percent and cannot be managed within one division may be treated as overload.
• Executive positions, chairs and directors are not eligible for overloads except in exigent circumstances, which must be pre-approved by the dean and/or provost.  

Research overload payments

• The Code of Federal Regulations determines the proper method for payment. Principles do not permit charging more than one hundred percent of an individual’s base salary to federal awards and / or nonfederal funds that are used as cost sharing on a federal award.  The only exception to this restriction is where the arrangement has been specifically provided for in the award or approved in writing by the sponsoring agency. In such cases, the department chair, dean, and provost must approve the financial arrangement.
• Regardless of funding mechanism, UW-Platteville does not permit overload payments for work on research or other externally funded projects during the faculty member’s contract period (9 or 12 months). Exceptions may be granted only under extraordinary circumstances, and would require project hours and associated salary as overload to be well documented and approved by the department chair, dean, provost, and granting agency. Faculty are encouraged to do their funded research during the summer months while they are off contract, and be paid by the granting agency accordingly.  With departmental approval, faculty may ‘buy out’ a percentage of their time (and fringe benefits) with grant funds to work on a project; the resulting salary savings are used at the discretion of the college and may be used to hire an adjunct instructor to allow the reassignment from teaching to research.

DEFINITIONS

Examples of Overload

• Courses taught during the fall and spring semesters that are outside of the normal course load (as established by each college)  
• A short-term project that requires more work than originally planned
• Additional administrative duties outside of an employee’s job description 
• Exceptional support for a university event (must be pre-approved by the college dean or provost)  
• Streaming video payments for the Collaborative Engineering Program (CEP) distance education courses

RESPONSIBILITIES

Employee

Responsible to ensure that they do not exceed the salary caps as set by UW-System.  Human Resources will make every effort to ensure that payments do not exceed the cap; however, the employee is responsible for re-payment if an error does occur as a result of an overload payment that exceeds the cap and/or is outside of the policy.  Repayment shall occur within 30 days of discovery of error or repayment will be deducted from the employee’s next paycheck.

College/division

Responsible for maintaining records of overload assignments and payments, as well as following policies to insure payment requests are processed under the appropriate guidelines.

Human Resources

Responsible for maintaining finalized copies of approved HRS paperwork per the Human Resources: Personnel Systems Records Retention Schedule.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS

RELATED DOCUMENTS

UW System Administrative Policy 230, Salary & Fringe Benefit Calculations
UW System Administrative Policy & Procedures - UPS Operational Policy 1277: Compensation
Wisconsin Statute § 16.417
UW-Platteville Delegation of Authority 
Additional Payment Pre-Approval and Request Form
Additional Payment Pre-Approval and Request Resource

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Can I request an overload payment if I serve on a search and screen committee?
No.  Agreeing to serve or chair a search and screen committee is considered service to the University and is not compensable under this policy.

I am required to work late (additional 1-2 hours/day per week) at the beginning of each semester.  Can I receive an overload payment for this overtime?
No.  As an employee who is exempt from overtime under the FLSA, you are expected to expend the total effort necessary to complete your regular assignments without additional compensation. 

How are overload payments calculated?

Academic areas – overloads are calculated determined by the college and in accordance with this policy.

Non-Academic areas – overloads are calculated in two ways:  

• If the duties are similar to, or the same as, the employee’s full time responsibilities, then the payment shall be calculated according to the employee’s current base salary.  
• If the overload responsibilities are administrative and distinct from the employee’s current responsibilities, the payment is based upon the market for the additional duties being performed.

A department has a need for the services of an employee from another unit.  This work will need to be done during normal workweek hours and the employee will not need to work additional hours to make up their duties for the “home” department.  Should this employee be compensated with an overload?
No. This situation should be handled as a buy-out of the employee’s time as detailed in UW-Platteville Backfill Policy.  If an exchange is agreed upon with the employee, the home department may then reassign the job responsibilities to another staff member(s).  If it is not possible to shift workload responsibilities or adjust schedules, the employee may be compensated with an overload.

If I receive an overload for work outside of my department and for duties that are not similar to those that I regularly perform, how will the payment be calculated?
The payment will be calculated based on the average cost to hire someone in that unit to complete those duties. The cap will still apply in this situation.

If overload payments are tracked and calculated based on the fiscal year, which year do the December earnings fall into (for monitoring purposes)?
In general, the December earnings are paid on January 2nd of the following year.  Per UW System policy, this payment would fall under that new calendar year for purposes of IRS reporting.  However, for purposes of overload tracking, the overloads are tracked on the fiscal year basis.

If I am a non-instructional academic staff member and am asked to make a presentation to an academic class, am I able to receive an overload payment?
No. As an exempt employee, under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), you are considered a salaried employee and therefore, are not eligible for overtime or an overload payment because the presentation relates directly to your normal work duties.
If the request is for you to instruct a class for a full semester, the additional workload then differs from your normal duties and requires long hours over the course of several months.  Therefore, this appointment should be evaluated for an overload payment.  Pre-approval from your supervisor and an alternative work schedule is required upon request.

Does the overload limit remain at the UW-Administration cap if I also perform work for another state agency?
Yes. All state agencies are governed by the state limit for additional pay as established under Wisconsin Statute § 16.417.

Each employee is responsible for tracking any pay received from another state agency.

HISTORY

Original Issuance Date: July 1, 2018.
Contacts and links updated February 5, 2021. 
June 2024: Titles and names updated. Links to new BP Logix form and resource file replaced obsolete forms.  

SCHEDULED REVIEW

July 2024