Academic Compensation — Specific Resources

Overview

These compensation materials and resources support our academic community.

Faculty & non-faculty academic compensation

Academic honorarium and one-time payment

Overview

A one-time payment transaction is used to pay an employee for activities that fall outside the faculty member’s regular scope of work (e.g., HSCP clinical incentive, honorarium for occasional lectures, etc.).

Non-faculty academics (NFAs) are eligible for honorarium payments and University Extension (UNEX) payments.

Employee steps

Consult with your department and academic generalist on eligibility to receive one-time payments.

  • Z-payments are only paid to compensation plan faculty.

Tips

For faculty members, refer to your department's compensation plan for specific guidelines regarding one-time incentive payments.

Relevant policies

Forms

Related resources and tools

Academic Affairs Compensation and Benefits

Academic annual renewal process

Overview

This process applies to both faculty and non-faculty academics. If you are on a fiscal year appointment cycle, your appointment is renewed annually on July 1. This process involves the renewal of your compensation and funding, along with the issuing of annual compensation/reappointment renewal letters. Appointment renewals require close coordination and collaboration between the departments and Academic HR Shared Services to ensure the systematic renewals and the issuance of renewal letters by June 30 of each year.

Renewals are processed using the Academic Personnel Renewal Portal (APRP), which is an online tool accessed through MyAccess. The tool is open between April and June of each year. 

Department steps

All academic appointment renewals, except for volunteer clinical professors (VCPs), should be processed through APRP.

  1. The following tabs will be available in APRP:
    • HCOMP Faculty
    • Paid Non-Faculty Academics (NFAs)
    • Fiscal Year (FY) Paid Faculty
    • All Recalls (Faculty and NFAs, Paid and WOS)
    • Without Salary (WOS)
    • Faculty Admin
  2. Update APRP required fields for the purpose of mass upload to UCPath for reappointment, and for the generation of the annual renewal letters.
  3. Review and issue renewal letters.
  4. If obtaining signatures within the department, return copies of signed letters to HR by July 31.

Employee steps

Review your annual compensation/reappointment renewal letter to ensure all information is accurate.

Tips

  • Review the renewal timeline communicated in March via HR Update.
  • Review the user instructions included in APRP.
  • Appointment end dates cannot extend beyond visa end dates.
Faculty annual salary negotiation

Overview

Annual salaries for Health Sciences Compensation Plan (HSCP) faculty members are negotiated once a year, and their newly negotiated “Y” salary is effective July 1 of the current fiscal year.

Y Firm

Comp Rate Code = UCHSY HSCP

Comp Rate Description = Negotiated [FIRM]

Y-Firm compensation is not decreased after a range adjustment, meaning that their total compensation will increase.

Earn Code = HSN

Y - Not Firm

Comp Rate Code = UCHSN HSCP

Comp Rate Description = Negotiated [NOT FIRM]

Y- Not Firm compensation is decreased in proportion to the range adjustment, so that their total compensation does not change.

Earn Code = HSN

Salary increases over 10% may require additional approval. 

For HSCP faculty, mid-year renegotiations may only occur under extraordinary circumstances such as significant changes in job responsibilities, etc. Any salary renegotiations with effective dates other than July 1 are considered mid-year renegotiations and require exceptional approval by the dean’s office and the vice provost, academic affairs office (VPAA).

Other academic employees do not have a negotiated “Y” salary component to their total compensation; their salaries are set by the UC Office of the President’s salary scale and are not eligible for renegotiation of salary.

Department steps

  1. Department sets pay, ensuring parity/equity, and works with HR Shared Services in processing the new salary.
  2. Department completes Academic Personnel Renewal Portal (APRP) by HR deadline for all faculty and non-faculty renewals and advancements.
  3. For late approvals, including all mid-year salary renegotiation requests, submit a PeopleConnect case.
  4. If a faculty salary increase is over 10%, submit justification through the annual renewal process (all schools require this except School of Pharmacy).
  5. Work directly with the dean’s office on any department chair and ORU directors’ annual salary negotiations.
  6. For non-faculty academics, off-scale pay requires pre-approval by the dean’s office. A memo, signed by the department chair, is routed to HR Shared Services for submission to the dean’s office.
  7. Review funding in UCPath and make any necessary changes.
  8. For employees paid over the cap and on capped funds, update funding via the Multiple Components of Pay (MCOP) worksheet in UCPath on or after the effective transaction date.
  9. Submit any direct retro / salary cost transfers as necessary.
  10. Review MyReports compliance report to ensure accurate transaction entry.

Tips

  • By request from the department, the dean’s office will provide comparative data on salary equity directly to the department.  
  • For faculty with salary negotiations linked to advancements that are pending approval by the dean’s office, the department will need to submit a request to process salary adjustments once the advancement is approved.
  • For smooth processing, adhere to the annual renewal deadlines established by HR Shared Services.
  • If needed, also refer to policy related to Outside Professional Activities. 

​Timeline

Annual renegotiation occurs as part of the renewal process.

 

Academic voluntary percent effort change

Overview

Effort is the amount of time you spend on a given professional activity (for example, research). This effort is a percentage of what you are employed to do at the University of California. See the UCSF controller’s website for more information on effort reporting. 

There are restrictions on what types of voluntary percent effort change requests are approved and depend on job series. Refer to the Academic Personnel Manual (APM) or speak with your academic generalist for more information.

Department steps

  1. Consult with your academic generalist:
    1. Determine if the request meets the business needs and series-based criteria.
    2. If approved, collaborate with your academic generalist to revise the appointment letter.
    3. Discuss with the faculty member the potential implications the change in percent effort will have on their comp plan membership and provide the relevant acknowledgement form.
  2. Submit a “Appointment Change” case in PeopleConnect (visit the Project One website for additional guidance). Attach the following:
    • Employee’s written request
    • Signed appointment letter that reflects the new percent effort and time period.
  3. Submit a UCPath funding entry update if applicable.

Tips

  • The request from the employee should be solely voluntary. Be aware of how the effort change may affect the employee. For instance, changes to their benefits or pay or implications to comp plan membership if applicable.
  • Changes in effort due to loss of funding are not considered voluntary. Contact your academic generalist for information on how to proceed.
  • Best practice is for the department to submit the request to UCSF HR 30 days in advance of the effective date of action to avoid under- or overpayment
Academic compensation plan/outside professional activities

Overview

Faculty who hold appointments greater than 50% and some recall faculty are members of their department’s and school’s Health Sciences Compensation Plan (comp plan). The comp plan represents an “agreement” between the University/department and the faculty member. Each comp plan outlines the requirements of outside professional activities. For comp plan eligibility questions, you should contact your department administrators.


In general:

  • Outside professional activities must not be patient care; all clinical and/or patient care activities must be provided within the University setting or as part of an approved affiliation agreement or professional service agreement.
  • Outside professional activities must not interfere with the faculty member’s professional obligation to the University.
  • To participate in outside professional activities, the faculty member must be “in good standing,” as defined by the comp plan.
  • The faculty member must adhere to the maximum number of days, maximum dollars received and types of outside professional activities, as defined by the comp plan.
  • The faculty member must submit a fiscal annual report of outside activities to comply with the requirements of University policy and the Academic Personnel Manual (APM).

Department steps

  1. Department should review and discuss comp plan membership with all faculty new hires and anyone who transitions in or out of the comp plan.
  2. Department chair or designee should monitor compliance of outside professional activities.
  3. To process payouts (e.g., BYKs for consult/expert witness payments), submit an Oracle transaction.
  4. Please work directly with your dean’s office if an exception to Category I activity is needed or to request approval for the time and earnings threshold.
  5. Annually, the department/school works with Academic Affairs to collect the faculty’s disclosure forms on outside professional activities.
    1. All faculty disclosure forms must be reviewed and approved by the department chair.
    2. The department chair must also complete the annual disclosure form and submit their form to the dean’s office for review and approval.

Tips

Be familiar with the three categories of outside professional activities. For a list and examples of activities within each category, refer to your department or school’s comp plan or APM-671.

Postdoctoral scholar compensation

Postdoctoral scholar pay and compensation

Learn more about Postdoctoral Pay and Compensation.

Supplemental compensation guidelines for postdoctoral scholars

The Graduate Division/Office for Postdoctoral Scholars and HR Shared Services for Postdoctoral Scholars have established local compensation guidelines. They are designed to help identify and clarify appropriate and equitable methods for providing supplemental compensation beyond the mandatory collective bargaining agreement for compensation between the University of California and the United Auto Workers, 5810.

Titles covered under these local compensation guidelines are:

  • Postdoctoral Scholar — Employee (Title Code 3252)
  • Postdoctoral Scholar — Fellow (Title Code 3253)
  • Postdoctoral Scholar — Paid Direct (Title Code 3254)
  • Interim Postdoctoral Scholar – Employee (Title Code 3256)

Please note that departments/PIs should consider salary equity amongst postdoctoral scholars within the unit before providing supplemental compensation.

Base pay increases are increases to a postdoctoral scholar’s base pay and may be applied for the following reasons:

  • Merit (e.g., research outcomes exceeded expectations, which resulted in extension of grant/fellowship funding)
  • Equity
  • Increase in the scope and responsibilities due to unexpected changes in the research project
  • Retention
  • Living wage adjustments/geographical

Supplemental pay at hire/initial appointment/reappointment

Departments/PIs may provide a salary supplement to the postdoctoral scholar. If there are questions regarding the exact payment mechanism for the salary supplement, please consult with the assigned HR generalist.

Supplemental pay mid-appointment reason/justification

Departments/PIs may provide temporary supplemental pay to the postdoctoral scholar for the following reasons: 

  1. Temporarily taking on additional tasks that further enhance the postdoc’s training above and beyond the scope of normal assigned responsibilities. Additional responsibilities can take place within own lab, at an alternative UCSF lab, may include professional duties within UCSF, guest teaching within UCSF, and/or other.
  2. Surplus of fellowship or grant funds (e.g., department under-budgeted and award/fellowship stipulates all funds due the postdoctoral scholar must be paid out).
  3. Fellowship award supplemental pay. In some instances, fellowship awards provide supplemental pay. The award notice must clearly define the type of supplemental pay to be disbursed during the appointment year.
  4. Supplemental pay for the:
    • Successful submission and award of grant or fellowship
    • Recipient of competition award, for which a formal set of criteria is established to determine award recipient (e.g., Postdoc Slam)
    • Poster submission or acceptance

Please consult with your academic personnel analyst in advance of submitting your additional compensation requests. Review and approval of additional compensation requests are required before postdoctoral scholars are notified that an increase has taken effect.

For additional information for Supplemental Pay, refer to the collective bargaining agreement between UC and the UAW representing postdoctoral scholars.

Article 4 - Compensation