PURPOSE OF THIS POLICY

This policy and the attached guidelines provide guidance to pay eligible employees additional compensation beyond their regular pay and sets forth the requirements and conditions for compensating an employee using Supplemental Pay.

APPLICATION OF THIS POLICY

This policy applies to all university employees with at least six months of continuous service with the university who are not otherwise exempted. Exceptions to this process will be considered by the Chief Human Resources Officer, or their delegate.

EXEMPTIONS FROM THIS POLICY

The following employee categories are not eligible for Supplemental Pay: non-student hourly, student hourly, work study, and graduate students

DEFINITIONS USED IN THIS POLICY

Annualized Salary:  An amount determined by pay basis and automatically calculated on the request form.

Significant: Sufficiently great or important to be worthy of attention; noteworthy.

Supplemental Pay: Non-base-building, temporary form of compensation earned in addition to monthly base pay.

POLICY STATEMENT

The University recognizes that employees may need to temporarily make contributions that are outside the scope of their normal job responsibilities. The University may provide Supplemental Pay to these employees to compensate them for their additional efforts..

POLICY PROVISIONS

Supplemental pay is intended for activity that requires effort, either in degree or nature, in addition to their normal job responsibilities and their 100% effort distribution. Individuals on a 9-month pay basis doing summer work should be paid via a summer session assignment rather than Supplemental Pay.

The amount of Supplemental Pay provided to an individual is to be determined by a unit based on similar responsibilities, level of complexity of the supplemental responsibilities, level of skill required to complete the supplemental responsibilities, or the documented amount historically paid for similar responsibilities within the unit for which the supplemental work is being performed. This justification shall be clearly noted on the Supplemental Pay Request form. Supplemental pay may not exceed 20% of the individual’s annualized salary or $25,000 in a given fiscal year, whichever is more. Exceptions to this requirement may be considered and approved by the Provost/Executive Vice President.

Non-exempt employees who are eligible for overtime and who are performing additional temporary duties beyond their normal job responsibilities are entitled to overtime payment for any hours more than 40 in each work week and cannot be paid Supplemental Pay in lieu of overtime.

Permanent additional responsibilities and assignments are more appropriately addressed through an adjustment of the employee’s institutional base salary rather than justification for Supplemental Pay compensation.

An activity related to a Supplemental Pay request should not exceed twelve consecutive months. In the event an activity will continue in excess of twelve consecutive months, a new Supplemental Pay Request form shall be completed clearly noting the justification for an extension request.  

All Supplemental Pay approval requests must be completed and fully approved before the activity commences. In those instances where the final pay amount has not been determined, an Interim Supplemental Pay request may be submitted, to be finalized when the final pay amount has been calculated. Failure to follow this requirement may result in a denial of the Supplemental Pay request.

Requests for Supplemental Pay are initiated by the HR Liaison from the funding department after discussion with:

• the employee;
• the employee’s supervisor;
• the employee’s department/unit head;
• the employee’s department HR Liaison;
• the paying department head;
• and the verifier of funds.

The request must clearly identify:

• the activity;
• the relationship of the activity to the employee’s normal job responsibilities;
• the expected duration;
• the basis for determining the amount of Supplemental Pay;
• the amount of Supplemental Pay.

The employee’s supervisor is required to sign an attestation statement affirming that the activity is ancillary to the employee’s normal job responsibilities, and that overtime, if applicable, has been factored into the decision. It is the responsibility of chairs, deans, directors, and other unit leaders to review the overall workload of the employee who is receiving Supplemental Pay to ensure that the activity does not interfere with nor affect the quality of the employee’s normal job responsibilities.

Pursuant to State Personnel Board Rules, all Supplemental Pay requests for State Classified employees will require final approval by the Chief Human Resources Officer, or their delegate.

COMPLIANCE WITH THIS POLICY

Compliance with this policy is required. For assistance with interpretation or application of this policy, contact human resources.

REFERENCES

Human Resources website
4 CCR 801-1 State Personnel Board Rules and Personnel Director’s Administrative Procedures

FORMS AND TOOLS

A required form for requesting authorization for a supplemental pay assignment is linked below. For questions, please contact the Payroll Office in the Department of Human Resource Services at 970-491-MYHR (6947).

Supplemental Pay Authorization Form

Supplemental Pay Guidelines

CSU Policy: Institutional Base Salary

APPROVALS

Approved by the State Board of Agriculture (Board of Governors), June 9, 1999

Revision approved by Brendan Hanlon, Vice President for University Operations, on September 22, 2023.