The policy below governs retired faculty partial reemployment.

General

Consistent with Washington State law, the University of Washington (UW) permits retired faculty members to reemploy at the UW up to a maximum of 40%. The UW bases the 40% limit on the faculty member’s appointment and academic year base salary at the time of retirement. Faculty members who retire from a 9-month appointment are eligible to earn up to 40% of their 9-month academic year base salary; and faculty members who retire from a 12-month appointment are eligible to earn up to 40% of their 12-month academic year base salary. Forty percent represents the maximum amount of annual compensation a retiree can receive from all funding sources and compensation plans.

Reemployed retired faculty members are subject to all applicable UW policies and procedures.

The faculty partial reemployment policy serves the dual purpose of providing transitional support to retiring faculty members while at the same time maintaining a corpus of experienced and committed faculty members who able to continue to support the UW’s instructional and research mission.

Vested Right

By policy, the UW has vested in tenured faculty members the right, beginning at age 62, to be reemployed up to the maximum of 40% of their tenure-backed salary for instructional and/or research purposes for 5 years immediately following their retirement. The vested right applies to only the tenure-backed portion of a faculty member’s salary at the time of retirement.

When a faculty member with a vested right to reemploy retires prior to the end of an academic year (i.e., June 15 separation/termination date for 9-month appointments and June 30 separation/termination date for 12-month appointments), the academic year in which retirement occurs counts as the first year of the 5-year vested right. In such cases, the retiree is eligible to reemploy up to 40% of the time remaining in that academic year.

A faculty member does not need to elect reemployment in every year of the 5-year reemployment period; however, skipping a year does not extend the 5-year period. Faculty must notify their chair/director/campus dean/dean by December 1 of the academic year preceding the academic year they elect to be reemployed. This notification ensures that they can be planned into the curriculum.

When a retiree’s reemployment is funded from state or tuition funds, the assigned duties must be classroom teaching unless the reemploying unit agrees to other instructional assignments. Decisions about teaching load and their equivalent percentages of support are made at the local level, taking into account traditional teaching loads within the particular unit. Arrangements for instructional, research, or other designated duties of reemployed faculty members are made at the discretion of the appointing unit. Program and curricula needs take precedent when making assignments. While efforts are made to accommodate reemployment assignments specifically requested by retirees, they cannot be guaranteed. Nonetheless, by vesting the reemployment commitment in retired tenured faculty members, the University commits to honor, in some scheduled way, the total reemployment opportunity for each year. The retiree has the discretion whether to accept the offered reemployment opportunity.

Reemployed faculty members are expected to maintain excellence in instructional, research and other designated duties and the University retains the right to discontinue reemployment on evidence of failure to meet those expectations. In addition, reemployment can be voided if the reemploying program is eliminated, or in the event of a financial emergency.

Other Reemployment Options

Faculty members who retire from professorial appointments in the following tracks: without tenure by reason of funding, research, or teaching; or from lecturer appointments, may be reemployed after retirement for instructional, research, or service at the discretion of the appointing unit, using funds appropriately designated and available for the assigned duties.

Faculty members who retire from a 9-month appointment and who have a documented, recurring history of summer quarter compensation may petition to include summer months in the reemployment eligibility calculation. While such faculty may be approved to reemploy for more than 9-months, any applicable vested right remains limited to the 9-month tenure appointment.

Compensation During Reemployment

Reemployed retired faculty members are not eligible for merit-based salary increases. Base salary may only be adjusted when across the board salary increases for all faculty members are authorized by the president. A retired faculty member’s reemployment compensation threshold of 40% is based on the appointment percent and base salary at the time of retirement.

  • A faculty member with a full-time, 9-month appointment, no summer employment history, and a $10,000 monthly base salary would be eligible for up to $36,000 in annual compensation (i.e., $90,000 x .40).
  • A faculty member with a 50%, 9-month appointment, no summer employment history, and a $10,000 monthly base salary would be eligible for up to $18,000 in annual compensation (i.e., $90,000 x .5 x .4).
  • A faculty member with a $10,000 monthly base salary on a full-time, 9-month appointment of which 50% is tenure-backed, would be eligible for up to $36,000 in annual compensation, but would only have a vested right to reemploy up to $18,000 in annual compensation (i.e., $90,000 x .5 x .4).