Change the minimum of Pay Grade 801 to $23,660 or $455.00 per week. Department Heads will be notified individually if the new minimum salary will affect any of their staff employees or if positions will have to be reviewed for maintaining their Exempt status under the new duties tests.

Non-classified (no pay grade) Exempt staff positions will have an unpublished salary minimum of $23,660 annually.

Non-classified Research positions, Research Aide and Post Doctoral Research Associate, will have an unpublished salary minimum of $23,660.

They will be required to meet the updated DOL definition of a teacher which is, “any employee with a primary duty of teaching, tutoring, instructing or lecturing in the activity of imparting knowledge and who is employed and engaged in this activity as a teacher in an educational establishment”. This means that employees whose primary duty is to grade papers and/or proctor exams will no longer qualify for this exemption and will have to be employed as Graduate Assistants and paid hourly. GPTIs/TAs that meet this definition are not required to meet the salary test of $455/week or $23,660/annually.

In order to ascertain which GPTIs/TAs meet this requirement, departments will have to complete a GPTI/TA Certification (Attachment A) and attach it to the monthly turnaround form (if the employee is being reappointed for this fall semester) as well as to the PAFs of any new employees being hired as GPTIs/TAs for the first time. A new certification form will have to be completed and attached to all future Appointment and Reappointment PAFs.

When departments determine that graduate students currently appointed as GPTIs/TAs must be appointed as Graduate Assistants, the required changes can be made using either the employees’ turnaround document or on a PAF/ePAF. When using the employees’ turnaround document the department will need to change the Job Class Code to “043906”, Monthly Rate to an Hourly Rate, the Earnings Type to “RGH”, and note in the Explain Box, “Change monthly-paid GPTI/TA to hourly-paid Graduate Assistant.”

Note: Affected graduate students, who have active monthly appointments through the end of August, should be changed to hourly-paid Graduate Assistants effective 9/01/2004. All others should be appointed hourly effective the first day of employment.

The graduate student is engaged in research in the course of obtaining an advanced degree and is performed under the supervision of a member of the faculty in a research environment under a grant or contract.

The graduate student research work is for course credit or is simultaneously fulfilling the requirements of an advance degree. For example: the research is being used in producing a thesis or dissertation that is a requirement of the degree.

Graduate students performing research services that do not meet the above requirements must be appointed as Graduate Assistants and paid hourly.

In order to ascertain which RAs meet this requirement, departments will have to complete a RA Certification (Attachment B) and attach it to the monthly turnaround form (if the employee is being reappointed for this fall semester) as well as to the PAFs of any new employees being hired as RAs for the first time. A new certification form will have to be completed and attached to all future Appointment and Reappointment PAFs.

Employees whose primary duties do not meet the new requirements will have to be employed as Graduate Assistants and paid hourly. When departments determine that graduate students currently appointed as RAs must be appointed as Graduate Assistants, the required changes can be made using either the employees’ turnaround document or on a PAF/ePAF. When using the employees’ turnaround document the department will need to change the Job Class Code to “043906”, Monthly Rate to an Hourly Rate, the Earnings Type to “RGH”, and note in the Explain Box, “Change monthly-paid RA to hourly-paid Graduate Assistant.”

Note: Affected graduate students, who have active monthly appointments through the end of August, should be changed to hourly-paid Graduate Assistants effective 9/01/2004. All others should be appointed hourly effective the first day of employment.