Benefit Pooling
Benefit Pooling
Beginning July 1, 2023, the University of South Florida will implement a new process for expensing employee benefit costs. This new pooling methodology provides several advantages including simplified benefit budgeting and accounting. The pool will help standardize sponsored proposal development and provide predicable benefit expenditures on limited fund sources. Finally, pooling reflects benefit charging methods used broadly by other large research universities and at most of our peers in the State University System of Florida.
Summary Attributes of USF’s Proposed Fringe Benefit Pool
- Uses calculated and DHHS approved rates based on the budgeted annual fringe benefit costs rather than billing actual individual employee benefits
- Multiple rates will be deployed to appropriately charge by employee type (e.g., staff, faculty, admin, OPS, etc.)
- Includes payroll taxes, insurance, retirement, workers comp, unemployment, and leave payouts
- Includes all funding sources and all operating units
- Highly predictable
- Eliminates in-year fluctuations in fringe benefit costs
- Allows for clarity in budget planning and management of funding resources
- Aligns USF with a widely-used methodology in which benefits are consistently charged to all funding sources
FY2024 Fringe Benefit Rates
| Employee Type | Pool %'s |
|---|---|
| Faculty | 32.2% |
| Administration/Executive | 39.5% |
| Staff | 52.7% |
| OPS-Grad, Post Doc | 12.7% |
| OPS-Faculty | 3.0% |
| OPS Other/OPS-Student | 6.3% |
| Bonuses* | 7.7% |
* Excludes Workers Comp/Unemployment allocation
FY2025 Fringe Benefit Rates - Pending DHHS Approval
| Employee Type | Pool %'s |
|---|---|
| Faculty | 32.2% |
| Administration/Executive | 37.7% |
| Staff | 49.6% |
| OPS-Grad, Post Doc | 10.8% |
| OPS-Residents | 1.9% |
| OPS Other, OPS-Student, Adjuncts | 5.8% |
| Bonuses* | 7.7% |
Note - Resident Pool is new and Adjuncts have been added to OPS Other pool
* Excludes Workers Comp/Unemployment allocation
Frequently Asked Questions
How will this apply to partial year appointments (9m, Summer, etc)?
Rates will be applied at the same level regardless of appointment duration.
Will leave payouts still follow the last pay distribution?
No, payouts will be paid centrally using the pool.
Will there still be budget errors associated with payroll processing?
Yes, budget will still need to be posted for payroll to post.
How will budget transfers between budget accounts be handled?
The same rules used today will apply. OPS will need to have the benefits transferred if non-salary is being transferred.
How will the percentages be used for budget?
Percentages will be the same for budget and actuals.
What is the fringe percent for FWS positions?
FWS students are not assessed any benefit percentage.