DRAFT Part Time Academic Work
This resource covers issues involved in what units can hire people to do part-time.
Consider the three main areas of academic work, the type of work that is done by full time faculty. What if your school or department has some of this work that needs doing, and you want to have someone do it who is not full time?
Another way of putting this is, if AC1 means 'full time' and AC2 (adjunct) means 'part time' can I hire someone as AC2 to do anything I want?
No! not if it is 'research' or 'administration' (service). But you CAN hire them on a part-time, HOURLY basis.
- Research: includes research support such as consulting on design, conducting literature reviews, recruiting and processing subjects, analyzing data.
- Service/administration: includes recruiting students; advising; managing adjuncts.
Yes! if it is teaching
- Teaching: includes teaching a for-credit course, teaching non-credit sessions such as for The Fundraising School, giving individual lessons, or supervising interns.
Why?
Because of two federal laws and IU policies about academic appointments. Because all academic appointees (AC1, AC2, and AC3) are paid salaries (not on an hourly basis) IU policies have been carefully crafted to fit within federal labor law. We cannot create 'new' academic appointee categories because of these constraints.
The Affordable Care Act. This requires that anyone who works more than 30 hours per week be a fully-benefitted employee, with health insurance.
- This is why adjuncts have a firm 30-standard-hour limit on teaching for IU at any campus. (One semester-long 3 credit course = 9 'standard hours.')
- If a unit really truly and desperately needs someone to teach more than 3 courses, their only option is to hire them temporarily full time as a visiting faculty member (AC1), with benefits and at a full time salary.
Also be aware that to provide health insurance, IU must establish plans with defined and consistent coverage and eligibility. It is not possible to casually 'allow' someone who is otherwise ineligible to 'join' a particular plan--they must be working in an established and appropriate category.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This says that the default method of paying anybody is hourly wages plus overtime. To be exempt from hourly, that is, to be allowed to be paid on a salary basis, someone has to:
a) do work that falls into certain defined categories (teaching, medicine, 'learned professions,' management/ supervision)
AND
b) be paid a minimum salary no matter their "percentage."
-
The minimum salary is roughly $36,000. This is why the minimum annual salary for full time academic appointees is at or above $36,000.
- Suppose you want someone to work 2 days a week, 40%. They STILL have to be paid the minimum of $36,000 ($3000 per month), not $14,400.
- "Teachers" are exempt from the minimum salary. This is why units can set their own rates for adjuncts. ("Medicine" is also exempt but it means only doctors; "law" also is exempt. Computer professionals have their own minimum.)
And IU policy says that there shall be no AC1s below 75% (ACA-75).
Back to the three main types of academic work:
- Teaching. This IS exempt from hourly-pay, AND from minimum salary, so you can hire someone as an AC2 to teach.
- Research. This is subject to the minimum salary and to IU Policy. So you cannot hire a postdoc or research associate at less than 75%, or pay them less than $3,000/month. (Full time AC1 researchers are exempt from hourly pay because they fall into the "learned profession" work category--point "a" above; for research associates we also enforce this through OAA review of research associate positions.
- Service/administration. This is subject to the minimum salary and to IU Policy. You cannot hire someone part time to run a program on a salaried basis as an AC1/academic appointee.
For research and for administration, you CAN hire people in part-time, hourly, staff positions. You cannot hire them in part-time / hourly academic positions because there are no part-time, hourly, AC1 positions (IU policy).
What about hiring them as a consultant? Technically this is called "independent contractor." IU Tax has an independent contractor worksheet and would assess the results (Independent Contractor Questionnaire). This is more likely to be approved if the person involved does that kind of work for multiple clients (not just IU), and, has not been an IU employee. If someone is a recent retiree, is doing work just like they did as a full time regular employee, and does no such work for anyone else, this will NOT be approved.
Created 8/2023. Questions: contact ude[dot]ui[at]rhdaca.