January 21, 2020

Drexel University has submitted the fringe benefit proposal to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to establish the fiscal year 2021 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 three to six months.  Therefore, you should begin to utilize these proposed rates on any proposal submissions that will have salary and wages after July 1, 2020, to ensure that you have budgeted adequate funding.  Coeus and Banner have both been updated to reflect the new rates effective July 1, 2020.

For fiscal year 2021, the Academy of Natural Sciences (ANS) will continue to use the non-sponsored fringe benefit rates, however, the fiscal year 2021 rates are not yet determined and will be announced when final.  In the meantime, proposal submissions for ANS should utilize the fiscal year 2020 non-sponsored fringe benefit rates for any salary and wages after July 1, 2020. 

The fiscal year 2021 proposed fringe benefit rates for sponsored research are:

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. 

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 Evelyn Balabis at 215.895.2946 or Gabrielle Berrios at 215.895.1730. Current and prior year rates and rate agreements can be found on the fringe benefit page of the Research Accounting website.