Earning Limit and Suggested Weekly Hours

As a work-study student you can only earn as much as you have been awarded on your Work-Study Award for the Fall and Spring semesters.

The starting hourly wage for a work-study position is $8.25.

If you earn your full award before the end of the school year, you may have to stop working as a work-study student. Contact the Financial Aid office if this happens to you.

Calculate your Weekly Hours

To be sure that your work-study award will cover the whole school year, calculate how many hours a week you will need to work to earn your full award amount without going over.

1. First, calculate the number of hours you need to work to earn your full work-study award. To do so, take your award amount and divide it by your hourly wage. Example: $2000/$8.25 = 242 hours.

2. Then, calculate the number of hours you need to work per week to earn your full work-study award. To do so, take the result of your calculation in step 1 and divide by 32 weeks. Example 242/32 = 7.50 hours per week.

If you do not want to work during finals week and your supervisor approves the week off, you can calculate the number of hours you will need to work per week using 30 weeks in the semester instead of 32.

When scheduling your weekly hours please note:

• Your primary responsibility at Hawkeye is to be academically successful. Attending classes should be your number one priority.

• You are not allowed to work during your scheduled class time.

• We recommend that you do not work more than 30 hours a week. This would only be possible in special situations such as working through winter or spring break and with prior approval from your supervisor and the Financial Aid office.

Monthly Work-Study Earnings Monitoring

The Financial Aid office monitors the earnings of all work-study students and sends a monthly monitoring sheet to your supervisor. It is your responsibility, along with your supervisor, to pay close attention to the monitoring sheet to make sure you do not work in excess of your award amount.

If you have earned your work-study award amount and would like to continue working in your current position

• The Financial Aid office may be able to increase your work-study award amount if:

  • there are additional work-study funds available after all departments have filled their work-study positions,

  • your unmet financial need allows it, and

  • the Financial Aid office approves it.

• Your employing department may choose to hire you as a department part-time student employee. As a department part-time student employee you would be paid from the department’s budget. This process would go through Human Resource Services.

Work-Study Handbook | Next Page >