Â鶹´«Ã½

Hiring Â鶹´«Ã½s

Create an appropriate job description and assign an appropriate wage rate for the position. For guidance, you may refer to the guidelines used at Â鶹´«Ã½ by visiting Career and Student Employment Services.

• Complete and submit the Â鶹´«Ã½ Community Service Work-study Agreement. The agreement must be signed by the appropriate representative of both the off-campus site and Â鶹´«Ã½.
• Work with WMU Career and Student Employment Services to recruit Â鶹´«Ã½ employees to your site and if you wish, list your position on Handshake.
• When you find a potential Â鶹´«Ã½ employee, confirm that they have received a Federal Work-study offer. Students who have been offered Federal Work-study may view and print their offer letter any time using goWMU. Please ask them to provide whatever documentation you desire to confirm their offer.

Please note that WMU will reimburse the site for up to 75% of the Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s wages. The site must contribute the remaining 25%. If the Â鶹´«Ã½ does not have a Federal Work-study offer, the site will not be reimbursed.

Calculate the number of hours per week the Â鶹´«Ã½ may work within the limits of their offer. Please note that the calculations assume the Â鶹´«Ã½ is working all pay periods assigned to the semester/session.

Fall or spring

Student's offer amount / hourly pay rate / 18 weeks = hours per week.

Summer l or summer ll

Student's offer amount / hourly pay rate / 8 weeks = hours per week.

Processing payroll

The community service site or employer is initially responsible for paying the Â鶹´«Ã½ or employee for hours worked. Sites may only request reimbursement from WMU after the Â鶹´«Ã½ has been compensated for hours worked.

You must collect a timesheet for all hours worked during each pay period. After the Â鶹´«Ã½ has received payment for the pay period, the site should submit the Request for Community Service Payroll Reimbursement form. The request must be signed by the Â鶹´«Ã½, and certified by the Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s direct supervisor. After each pay period, email signed requests and supporting documentation to the Federal Work-study coordinator at @email.

• Only hours that have been compensated by the site are eligible for reimbursement. Future hours will not be reimbursed from Federal Work-study.
• Each site is responsible for tracking the Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s earnings against the amount of their offer. Once the offer maximum is reached, additional earnings will not be reimbursed. Maintain a record of gross wages paid to date and subtract them from the amount of the Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s Federal Work-study offer.
• Unused offers will automatically carry forward to the next semester/session if the semester/session receiving the carry forward is within the same financial aid year (summer II, fall, spring, summer I) and the semester/session receiving the carry forward also includes a Federal Work-study offer.

Staying on course

Off-campus community service sites who compensate Â鶹´«Ã½s using the community service Federal Work-study program must:

• Maintain a job description for each Â鶹´«Ã½ in the program.
• Assign appropriate wage rate for community service positions.
• Collect timesheets for hours worked. Timesheets must be signed by the Â鶹´«Ã½ and the Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s supervisor, certifying that hours worked were authorized and the time reported accurately represents hours worked on tasks related to the employer’s normal course of business.
• Maintain a copy of timesheets used for calculating Â鶹´«Ã½ wages.
• Make these records available for review upon request from WMU Student Financial Aid.
• Compensate the Â鶹´«Ã½(s) for hours worked at the community service site.
• Provide direct supervision for each Â鶹´«Ã½ in the program.

When you employ a Â鶹´«Ã½ you must compensate them regularly for hours worked. It is not appropriate to permit a Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s hours to accumulate. Students who are paid using Federal Work-study must work to earn wages. Please do not use Federal Work-study to compensate Â鶹´«Ã½s for hours of study or other non-work-related activities. To do so would be a violation of federal, state and University guidelines.