An inquiry into overload payments in the University of Wisconsin System found a number of university employees received more pay for extra academic work than is currently allowed by the state.
Faculty and academic staff receive overload pay for work done for the UW System in addition to, but separate from, their regular full time employment. A state statute currently limits overload pay to $12,000 annually.
According to a database of overload payments from the Appleton Post-Crescent, 60 UW System employees exceeded that limit in 2012, though none are UW-Madison employees.
UW System spokesperson David Giroux stressed the UW System is legally obligated to pay people for work.
“Where people have done extra work for us, we’ve paid them for that, and in a few cases that work and that pay surpassed a legal limit,” Giroux said. “That should not have happened, but we paid people for the work that they were asked to do and they did.”
He also said legislators took away this limit in the last biennial budget because they did not find it necessary. The change takes effect July 1.
