Fiscal Year 2018 Fringe Benefit Rates for Sponsored Projects
The University recently submitted its fringe benefit proposal to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to establish the fiscal year 2018 fringe benefit rates for sponsored projects. These rates are not final until we receive the official rate letter from DHHS, however, we do not expect any significant changes when they are finalized. It is anticipated that the University will not receive the approved, final rate letter for at least 3 to 6 months. Therefore, you should begin to utilize these proposed rates on any proposal submissions that will have salary and wages after July 1, 2017 to ensure that you have budgeted adequate funding. Coeus has been updated to reflect the new rates.
The proposed fringe benefit rates for fiscal year 2018 are as follows:
| Proposed Fringe Benefit Rates effective 7/1/2017 to 6/30/2018 | |
|---|---|
| Full-time Employees | 33.1% |
| Part-time Employees | 15.5% |
| DUCOM Highly Compensated Faculty | 20.4% |
The full-time employee rate captures all full-time, benefit eligible faculty and professional staff. Post-doctoral students hired as full-time professional staff are also included in the full-time employee rate. This group is considered one rate pool because they are all eligible for the same benefit offerings. This rate is based on projected benefit costs for fiscal year 2018 and also includes under-recovery of fringe benefit charges from fiscal year 2016 of $2.7 million.
The part-time employee rate includes both part-time benefit eligible and non-benefit eligible employees (e.g. temporary employees, co-ops).
The DUCOM highly compensated faculty rate, previously referred to in our agreement with DHHS as Clinical Faculty Rate, is specific to full-time, benefit eligible, College of Medicine faculty in the “F5” employee class. College of Medicine faculty are automatically assigned to the highly compensated employee classification on hire or when their base salary reaches the annual threshold.
Please note that students are not subject to FICA tax per IRS regulations and as such, do not warrant a separate fringe rate.
If you have any questions regarding the new rates they can be directed to Julie Ford at 215.895.2947. Current and prior year rates and rate agreements can be found on the newly added fringe benefit page of the Research Accounting website.