Several variable pay options exist to fairly compensate employees who perform work outside of their typical role at Lehigh. Each option is governed by a policy, criteria and approval processes. If you are looking to access variable pay for an employee, please review the categories below and consider which is appropriate to the situation. 

More information about variable pay can be found in the Lehigh Variable Pay Workbook.

Types of Variable Pay

At times, a member of Lehigh's exempt staff may be retained and compensated to provide consulting services to a department with which the staff member is not affiliated.

A Call Out is a request for a staff member to make an unscheduled return to campus or other location, or use remote access from off-campus, after he or she has returned home after working a regularly scheduled workday. For more information, including compensation calculation, consult the Compensation for Call-Outs for Nonexempt Staff Policy.

Extra duty is time worked outside normal work hours in any department or on any job other than that in which a nonexempt staff member is normally employed. Nonexempt staff members who are assigned to one department can work for another department or on another job only on a temporary, intermittent, or emergency part-time basis.

On Call pay refers to cash compensation provided to employees who are scheduled to be available to return to campus within a specified period of time, if called. It is provided to compensate the employees for the inconvenience associated with being available to their employer during their non-working hours. For more information consult the On Call Policy.

Shift Differential pay refers to cash compensation provided to employees who work shifts other than the traditional day shift. Shift differentials, or shift premiums, are treated as an additional payment over and above the base pay rate of the employee. For more information about criteria and compensation calculations, consult the Shift Differential Policy.

The Spot Bonus program rewards extraordinary achievement tied to a major goal. Anyone in the supervisory chain of command of an employee may start the nomination process for an award.

For more information, consult the Spot Bonus Awards page.

When staff members temporarily take on special roles that impact the strategic priorities of the University or sets of responsibilities significantly outside of the scope of their jobs, a temporary bonus may be available.