Charging Faculty Summer Salary

Faculty may choose to devote additional effort and receive compensation during the summer months of June, July, and August.

Calculating Summer Salary

The monthly summer pay rate is based on the Institutional Base Salary (IBS) rate effective for the new fiscal year beginning July 1 of that summer. Divide the IBS rate by nine to get the monthly summer pay rate.

Charging Summer Salary

Faculty may charge effort for up to 3 summer months to sponsored research (in line with sponsor terms), other sponsored projects, or discretionary funds, with the following restrictions:

Federal awards

Faculty may charge a maximum of 90% of their time, or 2.7 months over the whole summer, to any combination of federal awards. Contact your school to request an exemption to this policy.

Other academic, research, or administrative activities (OARA)

OARA include advising students (outside the scope of the sponsored research charged), unsponsored research, administrative committees, preparing new or renewal proposals, teaching, curriculum development, peer reviews, refereeing, and/or writing other scholarly publications.

Effort associated with OARA during the summer months:

may never be charged to any federally sponsored research project.
may be charged to MIT unrestricted funds (operating or discretionary).
under certain circumstances, may be charged to gifts or other sponsored programs if permitted by the terms of the award or gift.

Other Summer Work Considerations

Effort: Work with your RAS CA to obtain prior sponsor approval for effort adjustments.
Working internationally: See MIT Global Support Resources and Working Abroad.
Off-campus vs. on-campus: Designate an appointment as off-campus or on-campus based on where the work is being done. Work that would normally be done at Haystack Observatory, CERN, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, or other off-campus facilities would be considered off-campus work, and summer appointments should be made to off-campus. For more information see Determination of On-campus and Off-campus F&A Rates.

Sponsor-Specific Guidance

If the sponsor has a salary cap (e.g., NIH), charges to the grant will be reduced to the capped amount. For the current cap, see NIH Salary Cap; NIH Salary Cap Summary (FY1990–Present).

Faculty with NIH awards may:
- Self-fund the difference between the NIH salary cap and their full salary during the summer by using MIT unrestricted funds (operating or discretionary).
- Take summer salary using the NIH capped rate which may mean forgoing salary over the cap if they commit their full proportional effort to the project and their IBS exceeds the cap.
For more information see NIH Salary Cap Appointment Process or contact payroll@mit.edu.

The NSF’s general policy limits proposed support for senior personnel to no more than 2 months aggregate among any combination of NSF grants. However, if required to achieve the project objectives without a change in scope, normal re-budgeting authority does allow salary charges in excess of 2 months without NSF prior approval. For more information see NSF Proposal Preparation Instructions Senior Personnel Salary and Wages.

^{Updated November 19, 2024}