Hiring a Graduate Employee (GE) vs. a Student Hourly Employee

The GTFF Collective Bargaining Agreement stipulates that graduate students should be hired as GEs if the work is graduate level, and if their total hours per term across all appointments equal or exceed .20 FTE (.25 effective Fall 2024). 

If you are considering hiring a graduate student as a student hourly employee, see the questions below to help determine whether the graduate student can be hired as a student hourly employee or must be hired as a GE.

Contact graduatestudies@uoregon.edu with any questions. 

TYPE OF WORK

What are the specific duties?

Are the duties considered GE work?

GE work is considered "graduate-level" when it requires a depth of knowledge, critical thinking, autonomy, scholarly writing, and specialization typically associated with activities undertaken in a graduate program. 

Examples include: 

  • Research
    • research in a lab or clinical setting
    • data analysis, coding, etc.
    • archival or library research
  • Teaching or teaching-related work affiliated with UO courses
    • instructor of record
    • lab or discussion section leader
    • grader
  • Autonomous administrative work
    • Supervising students
    • Advising students
    • Leading a mentor program
    • Counseling
    • Any administrative work for which the unit would not typically hire an undergrad for

If NO, you may hire a STUDENT HOURLY. Technical work like proofreading, IT support, etc., and clerical work are in this category.

If YES, go on to next question.

Why are you choosing this specific graduate student or why are you interested in a grad student and not an undergrad student?

If you have targeted graduate students in the hiring process for this work, it's likely a GE position. See duration.

How much do they want to pay?

If you are wanting to pay $18-20 per hour (or more) this could signal complexity and therefore be GE work. Go on to next question.

Has this work been done by a GE before?

If YES, go to duration.

DURATION

How many hours, altogether, will the person be working during the term?

Through Summer 2024, the minimum GE FTE is .20 (88 hours). Effective Fall 2024, the minimum GE FTE increases to .25 (110 hours). When determining whether a position must be processed as a GE appointment, units must take into account the total hours across all graduate-level work for that term. For example, if a student already has a GE appointment, any subsequent graduate-level work in the same term must also be processed as a GE appointment, even if the hours for the 2nd position wouldn't reach the minimum threshold on their own. 

If YES to “Are the duties considered GE work?” AND the hours in a single term are going to reach, or come very close to the minimum GE FTE, then the student must be hired as a GE. 

If YES to “Are the duties considered GE work?” BUT the work in a single term is not going to come close to the minimum GE FTE, then the student may be hired as an hourly student worker.