Honoraria - State Employees
An honorarium is a payment, fee, or other compensation made as a gratuity or as an award or honor for services rendered by a covered employee not related to the covered employee’s official duties. It also includes a payment for travel expenses incurred by the employee in the course of services unrelated to the employee’s duties.
The regulations on receipt of honoraria and travel reimbursement apply to all compensated state employees, with the exception of academic employees of the University, engaging in activities within their academic discipline.
An honorarium may not be paid for services at the home campus (i.e., the campus at which regular appointment is held). This policy exists without exception.
Honoraria may be paid for lectures and professional activities at other than home campuses.
Ethics Commission regulations state that all State employees who have received honoraria, without obtaining prior approval, must report honoraria to the College President or his designee annually, by April 1 of each year, regardless of amount. In turn, a compilation of individual reports must be filed with the Ethics Commission on an annual basis (by June 1 of each year). Employees who have obtained prior approval from the University of requests to receive honoraria need not file these annual reports. No special form for submission of the request for prior approval or the annual report has been specified.
If you have received a reportable honorarium, the report should include the following information:
- Name/Title – your full name and title of your position (i.e., Professor)
- Source – name of the organization you received the honoraria from
- Nature of Activity – (i.e., Speaker, Consulting)
- Description/Topic – (i.e., topic of speech or nature of the conference)
- Location of Activity – city/state where activity took place
Travel expenses may be handled separately by the host campus through established State procedures.
Payment of honoraria to State employees through the use of standard vouchers is contrary to established policy. The employee must forward a Form UP-6 reporting the extra service through the home campus’ Chief Administrative Officer; the host campus must pay the honorarium through a temporary-service appointment in the appropriate title.