By HELENA HAR
Some students and campus administrators are unclear about the logistics of the new spring and summer terms employment policy, said Penny Morrell, manager of student employment.
There is miscommunication about who can work on campus and which employees are subject to the FICA (social security) tax, she said.
Students enrolled full time, meaning they are taking four and a half credit hours if an undergraduate or one credit hour if a graduate student, can work during spring/summer and not pay the FICA tax. Campus employees who are not full-time students can still work on campus, but they, and the department that employs them, must pay the tax, Morrell said.
International students will not be subject to the FICA tax at all, Morrell said.
Wayne Hansen, managing director of placement and employment, said each term (spring or summer) is considered separate when defining FICA exemption. The number of credit hours a student is enrolled in each term determines the FICA exemption.
The departments that employ students should not require spring/summer student employees to be full-time students in order to work for them. Part-time students or those not taking classes but who otherwise meet the eligibility requirements of the Student Employment Policy are eligible to work, Morrell said.
Student employees who will graduate in April and have not been accepted into a BYU graduate program for fall are no longer eligible for on-campus student employment, Morrell said.
But if a department needs to finish a project of significance and the student employee is involved, the department may keep the student employed as a non-student employee for a short time.
If such is the case, all hours the student has worked as both a student and a non-student employee will count for the 910 maximum hours that a non-student can work in a calendar year, Morrell said.
Questions about non-student employees should be directed to Employment Services.
Students who are graduating in August may still be considered a student for employment purposes, even if they are not taking classes during spring or summer. They are eligible to be a student employee until they graduate, Morrell said.
