Making sure that GRA salaries budgeted to sponsored projects are accurate for your unit and for any other units that your PI may be collaborating with and having a well-documented justification will make it much easier to answer any questions that may arise during award/contracting.  It will also help to alleviate unexpected post award issues due to incorrect salaries.  This week’s blog goes over some best practices for budgeting GRA salaries.

Budgeting for GRA salaries

GRA stands for Graduate Research Assistant, a student who is supported by external grant funding.

It has been the practice here at CSU, and with our sponsors, that the terms salary and stipend have been used interchangeably, but they are quite different.

Stipends = the amount paid to trainees or fellowship recipients to help cover basic costs/or costs of living while they receive career training

Salary = the compensation given to employees for the services provided by them to the university

GRA students are employees, not trainees.  Their supervisor/advisor defines the work they will complete for the University, and they qualify for fringe benefits.  While we do see the terms used interchangeably at CSU, the accurate term for sponsored project budgeting is ‘salary’.  We also need to recognize that they are different from Fellowship holders, so they will be set up in our HR system, Oracle, correctly.

Budgeting for GRAs in a project year can be tricky.  GRAs in each unit are paid differently but the following should help in estimating how much of their salary to budget and what we would put into a budget justification.

First, let’s break down a “Year” at the University:

Academic Year (AY) = 9 months.  The AY consists of two semesters which are 4.5 months each or 9 months total.  Approximately:  August 15^th – December 31^st and January 1^st – May 15^th

Summer consists of 3 months.  Approximately:  May 16^th – August 14^th

CSU Fiscal Year (FY) = 12 months, July 1^st – June 30th – most staffing at CSU is set up on a Fiscal Year basis.

Calendar Year (CY) = 12 months, January 1^st – December 31^st

Second, let’s discuss FTE:

During the AY, GRAs are generally paid 50% FTE It is the expectation that the other 50% of their time during the AY is dedicated to their classes and course work.  GRAs can also be paid in the summer months, ranging from 1% – 100% FTE.

Third, how is the GRA that you need to budget for paid?

You must know if the GRA is paid over the AY or the FY and at what FTE in the summer.

With the above in mind, let’s look at some scenarios:

Scenario #1: Budgeting a GRA paid on a FY for a full year on a project

GRA has a full time equivalent (FTE) salary of $60,000. They are paid 50% FTE through the FY by their department. We want to budget them each year, solely on this project.

The math:

$60,000/12 months = $5,000/month

$5,000/month*50% FTE = $2,500/month

$2,500*4.5*2 semesters = $22,500/AY + $2,500*3 months = $7,500/summer = $30,000

This is how it would look in a KR PD budget:

Student’s salary is input or pulled into KR at $60,000

FTE is figured: 12 months*50% FTE = 6 months; 6 months/12 months = 50% FTE

$60,000*50% = $30,000 Total

Justification would indicate that the student will be working on the project during the FY at 50% FTE or 6 months.

Scenario #2: Budgeting a GRA paid on a AY on a project

GRA has a full time equivalent (FTE) salary of $60,000.  They are paid 50% FTE during the AY by their department.  We want to budget them to work during the academic year, solely on this project.

The math:

$60,000/12 months = $5,000/month

$5,000/month*50% FTE = $2,500/month

$2,500*4.5 = $11,250/semester or $22,500 in the AY

This is how it would look in a KR PD budget:

Student’s salary is input or pulled into KR at $60,000

FTE is figured: 9 months*50% FTE = 4.5 months; 4.5 months/12 months = 37.5% FTE

$60,000*37.5% = $22,500 Total

Justification would indicate that the student will be working on the project during the AY at 50% FTE or 4.5 months.

Best practice: If you need summer months,  calculate summer months using the monthly salary calculated for the AY.

Scenario #3

GRA has a full time equivalent (FTE) salary of $60,000.  In their department they are paid 50% during the AY and 75% during the summer months. We want to budget them each year, solely on this project.

The math:

$60,000/12 months = $5,000/month

$5,000/month*50% FTE = $2,500; $5,000*75% FTE = $3,750

$2,500*4.5 = $11,250/semester or $22,500 in the AY

$3,750*3 = $11,250/summer

$33,750 Total

This is how it would look in a KR PD budget:

Student’s salary is input or pulled into KR at $60,000

FTE is figured: 9 months*50% FTE = 4.5 months + 3 months/75% FTE = 2.25 months; 6.75 months/12 months = 56.25% FTE

$60,000*56.25% = $33,750 Total

Justification would indicate that the student will be working on the project during the AY at 50% FTE and at 75% FTE in the summer or 6.75 months.

GRA salaries, other considerations:

GRAs salaries will need to have the associated fringe budgeted.  By using the budgeting tool in KR PD, the current institutional fringe rates will be applied automatically to all years of the budget.  It is best practice to check that the correct rate is being applied for the FY, in particular if you are creating a budget near the fiscal year end, when new fringe rates are implemented in the KR system.

If allowed by the sponsor, tuition and any differential tuition should also be included in the budget based upon the amount of time the GRA will be spending on the project.  We will be discussing tuition in a blog coming soon.

If your GRA(s) are budgeted in each year of the proposal, an automatic 3% inflation rate each year is applied at July 1 in each budget period.  This inflation rate can be adjusted to accommodate sponsor requirements.

Finally, before budgeting for another department or unit, it is best practice to reach out to the college/department contacts and ask how they pay their GRAs: AY vs. FY.  Also, other than minimum salary rates that are set by the University, each college and/or unit set their own GRA rates.  Make sure to find out the correct salaries.