Employee Fringe Benefits

Composite Benefit Rates (CBR)

Proposal budgets requesting project personnel salaries and wages must also request the fringe benefit costs associated with the salaries and wages.UCI transitioned to Composite Benefit Rates (CBR) for proposals and revised budgets on November 18, 2018. The composite benefit rate is an average cost of benefits for an employee group, where groups are defined by attributes such as benefit eligibility, employee class, exempt and non-exempt status, and job code. Benefits will be charged based on the CBRs for their employee group(s).  CBR’s are fixed for the entire fiscal year and adjusted on an annual basis. 

Proposal Budgets

Fringe benefit costs for salaries and wages included in extramural proposal budgets should be calculated by multiplying the salary by the applicable CBR and vacation leave accrual assessment. The UCRP interest assessment should also be included if the funding source is non-federal. To assist in the proposal budget development process, rate tables and examples are provided below. If you are unable to determine the appropriate appointment from the CBR rate table below, please use the tools and resources provided on the Accounting Office's Composite Benefit Rates website to determine the appropriate CBR.

Employee GroupsCampus RatesEstimated Rates (for C&G)
FY25FY26FY27FY28FY29FY30
For Employees with Full Benefits
Faculty33.70%36.4%37.87%40.14%42.55%45.10%
Other Academic45.40%46.3%49.39%51.51%53.73%56.04%
Post Doc22.80%21.4%24.19%24.91%25.66%26.43%
HCOMP Faculty/Physician (MSP)/Nurse/Law Faculty/Police27.60%30.5%31.01%32.87%34.84%36.94%
Staff Exempt45.40%46.3%49.39%51.51%53.73%56.04%
Staff Non-Exempt51.60%52.1%56.46%59.05%61.77%64.61%
Food-Custodian-Grounds-Building Maintenance Workers51.60%52.1%56.46%59.05%61.77%64.61%
For Employees with Less than Full Benefits and Students
Faculty Summer Salary8.70%10.4%10.70%11.87%13.16%14.59%
Students and Employees with No Eligibility2.30%2.5%2.44%2.51%2.59%2.67%
Partial Benefit Eligibility2.30%2.5%2.44%2.51%2.59%2.67%

Vacation Leave Accruals

Vacation leave accruals are excluded from the Composite Benefit Rate and should be assessed on all fund sources according to the table below:

Vacation Accrual Rates
Fiscal Year Faculty 7.5%
Accruing Staff & Non-Faculty Academics 7.5%
Non-Accruing Staff & Academic Year Faculty 0.0%

Example: Project Scientist CBR (FY25) 45.40% + 7.5% (Accruing Staff and Non Faculty Academics) = Benefit rate of 52.90%

UCRP Interest Assessment (for non-federal sources only):

The University of California Retirement Plan (UCRP) interest assessment is excluded from the Composite Benefit Rate and should be assessed on all non-federal fund sources according to the following table:

Fiscal Year UCRP Assessment Rates
2019-2020 0.77%
2020-2021 0.30%
2021-2022 0.30%
2022-2023 0.30%
2023-2024 0.68%

Example: Project Scientist CBR (FY25) 45.40% + 7.5% (vacation leave accrual) + .68% UCRP interest assessment = Benefit Rate of 53.58%

Guidance, Resources, and Tools

Additional Guidance and resources are available on the Accounting Office's Composite Benefit Rates webpage.