Faculty & Staff Salary
If you use the UAF internal budget spreadsheet, most of these calculations will be automatic as you fill out your budget.
INE maintains a budget sheet customized for CEM/INE/ACEP. You can contact us for a copy, complete with the salaries and other standard costs you need.
If you need a quick estimate, here’s how to get it:
- Ask the INE Business Office or Proposal Office for an up-to-date hourly salary figure.
- Multiply this number by 173.33 hours. This will give you salary per month.
- Multiply by the number of months in your budget.
- Multiply this figure by the appropriate leave benefit percentage (current figures are available from the UAF Negotiated Agreements page). Always include leave benefits with salary. This gives you the “loaded” salary.
For example, 2 months of a faculty member’s time might be:
($60/hr)(173.33hrs/mo)(2 mos)(1.154) = $24,003 in loaded salary
- Take the loaded salary and multiply it by the appropriate staff benefits rate (current figures are available from the UAF Negotiated Agreements page).
For example:
($24.003)(35.4%) = $8,497 in staff benefits for a faculty member.
Faculty and staff salaries should generally increase by 2.5% each year, including Year 1.
Facilities and Administration Calculations: There’s a good discussion on the OGCA site.
INE Postdoctoral Salaries
Best practice budgeting for a postdoc to be supported on one project is 1,560 hours (9 months) to 1,906 hours (11 months), depending on the needs of the project. INE's starting postdoc salary is $32/hour, which is equivalent to a 9-month loaded salary of $57,607 (1,560 hours), and an 11-month loaded salary of $70,408.
Postdocs are considered members of the United Academics Collective Bargaining Agreement immediately upon hire and are budgeted with the same leave and healthcare benefit costs as faculty (F9). A postdoc's salary increases when promoted to a research faculty position. CEM/INE/ACEP have access to nationally-based tables of competitive salaries for many engineering professions and can help determine the appropriate transition salary when appropriate.
Student Costs
Guidance below is for graduate and undergraduate student support. For postdoctoral fellow support, please see Faculty & Staff Salary.
When you budget for a graduate student, standard support includes:
- Two semesters of tuition (including fees)
- 1360 hours (720 academic year and 640 summer) of wages, plus fringe benefits during summer months
- Health insurance
When you budget for an undergraduate student, standard support includes 1360 hours (720 academic year and 640 summer) of wage support, plus fringe benefits during summer months.
FY25 Graduate Hourly Student Rates
| Student Status |
Starting Hourly Rate |
| Masters Student |
$24.50 |
| Ph.D. |
$29.00 |
FY26: up 2.75%
FY27: up 2.0%
FY25 Undergraduate Pay Grid
Below is the pay scale for CEM/INE/ACEP undergraduate student assistants effective spring 2023. $16.50 is the standard minimum hourly rate. Higher rates apply to positions that require advanced knowledge/expertise and increased responsibility of the student.
| |
|
| Intern 1 |
$16.50 |
| Intern 2 |
$18.00 |
| Intern 3 |
$19.50 (CEM/INE)
$19.51 (ACEP) |
Budgeting Student Hours
Graduate Students are generally budgeted at 720 hours for two semesters (September to December and January to mid-May) and 640 hours for the summer (mid-May-August). This is roughly 20 hours per week in the academic year and 40 hours per week in the summer.
Academic year hours must be budgeted at 720 unless you have documentation that the student has support from another source. Summer hours are more flexible; if appropriate, for instance, you can budget 20 hours a week (320 total) for the summer.
Graduate Student benefits come in two forms: fringe benefits on summer hours (part time or full time) and student health insurance costs. How to calculate student summer benefits: ($hourly)*(640)(.086). These are fringe benefits, not leave. This percentage (8.6%) changes each fiscal year.
Undergraduate student hours are more flexible; you can budget anywhere from 10 to 20 hours per week in the academic year and from 10 to 40 hours per week during the summer.
Graduate Student Health Insurance
Research proposal budgets must also include student health insurance. While the graduate school breaks this cost down by semester, in practice, if you support a student in the spring, you must also budget for summer health insurance. You must budget health insurance unless you have documentation that a student is covered under another plan (for instance, a working spouse’s). Best practice is to budget these funds. If you don’t need them, you can always re-distribute them.
AY24-25 Graduate Student Health Insurance Rates
- Annual (August 2024–August 2025) $4,174
- Fall (August 2024–January 2025) $1,521
- Spring & Summer (January–August 2025) $2,653
- Summer only (mid-May–August 2025) $1,143
These charges are considered "student aid cost" and they incur F&A. This number is released by the UAF Graduate School every year, in the fall. To successfully meet these costs in outyears, UAF policy is to estimate a 7% increase annually in proposals.
Tuition and Fees
In or Out? Students who are U.S. citizens must be in Alaska for two years to qualify for the in-state tuition rate, or they can apply for resident status after residing in the state for one year under the university's "bona fide resident" provision. For budget planning on proposals, best practice is to include two years of out-of-state tuition, 9 credits a semester, a total of 18 credits per year. International students are not eligible for in-state tuition (unless they become an Alaska resident, defined as a person who is a U.S. citizen or eligible noncitizen who has been physically present in Alaska for at least the past two years.) Researchers are strongly advised to budget out-of-state tuition unless the international student has a green card in hand.
The CEM tuition figure includes the CEM differential tuition cost. You must request tuition for a graduate student research assistant unless the agency explicitly refuses to fund tuition (include documentation with proposal). If you wish to supply tuition from another source, please include a memo confirming the source and available funds. If you're in doubt about which tuition rate to use, apply the out-of-state rate. University policy requires that researchers cover consolidated and infrastructure fees for students; course-specific fees can be included at your request. Basic fee costs can be reviewed in the Student Handbook.
Travel & Lodging
Per Diem
Rates for lodging and meals and incidental expenses (M&I) are provided by the external websites listed below.
- Note that the UA Board of Regents limits meals and incidental expenses (M&I) to $80/day for the Alaska cities of Anchorage, Juneau and Fairbanks.
- Travel budgeting is simplified by calculating costs based on the full number of days/nights. Note that actual M&I expenses may be less (for instance, M&I is not allowed for travel duration less than 12 hours, M&I expenses are limited to 75% of published rates on travel days, etc.)
Domestic travel in Alaska or Hawaii: U.S. Department of Defense
Domestic travel to the contiguous United States: U.S. General Services Administration
International travel: U.S. Department of State
Vehicle Costs
Costs for using a personal vehicle should be listed in the TRAVEL section of the internal budget spreadsheet. For 2024, the personal vehicle mileage rate is $0.67 per mile. This includes fuel use, so don’t budget fuel separately.
Costs for RENTING a vehicle from the university goes in the “Rental and Leases” section of the budget spreadsheet, and these costs do not incur F&A. The same is true of renting/leasing a boat, a snowmachine, or a plane THAT YOU WILL DRIVE/FLY yourself. Aircraft and ship charter services also go under “Rental and Leases” and these are also F&A-free. For vehicles in this category, you should budget fuel costs under “Supplies.” For charters, please confirm if the charter rate is a “wet” (fuel included) or “dry” (fuel costs separate) rate. Quotes should be provided for charter costs.
Renting a vehicle from the university pool: Information on how to estimate costs and how to reserve a vehicle from UAF Facilities. Please note the extra charges for unpaved road use, which are significant. If you are driving any distance up the Dalton Highway, you should budget for this surcharge. You should also budget fuel for these vehicles.
Other Important Standard Costs
UAF requires that all members of a field research team undergo field safety training annually. This includes all students as well as staff and faculty who will access the field site. We strongly urge that you visit Occupational Safety and plan your costs and training accordingly.
Where will your fieldwork take place? Do you need permitting from Alaska State agencies or federal agencies? These costs can be significant and require significant hours from your faculty or staff to complete the permitting process. Best practice is to identify the requirements for your site and budget these costs under “Services” and “Personnel.” Be sure you use current costs for Toolik Field Station use.
How much staging or logistical support do you need? Be sure to budget adequate staff hours for mobilization/demobilization for all fieldwork and experimental set-ups. Best Practice is at least 20 hours per field season.
Have you adequately budgeted for using UAF labs? For most CEM or INE-related labs, if you intend to have graduate or undergraduate students performing tests, you must budget at least two weeks of time for the appropriate lab manager to train and guide your students.
Publication Costs: If you list publication of your results in professional journal as a deliverable or an outcome of your project, you should also include at least $2,500 per publication for page fees and open journal costs.
Data Archiving: The National Science Foundation and other federal agencies explicitly state that data resulting from your project should be available to other scientists via a well-established public repository. A server in your lab or office is not sufficient. You should budget adequate funds in “Services” and “Personnel” to meet this requirement.
Conference Registration Costs: If your planned travel includes presenting your work at a conference, you should budget conference registration costs for each traveler. Usually these can be based on the last conference’s costs, which are published on the conference web site.
