Benefits

last updated: Feb 10, 2019

Benefits for postdocs

Penn has adopted the National Research Service Awards (NRSA) stipend scale as the minimum stipend awarded to postdoctoral researchers.

Postdocs are eligible for many benefits, including sick, vacation, and holiday pay; family leave; health insurance; and more. For a detailed description of the benefits and support the University provides to postdocs, visit the Dean’s office resources for postdocs.

Benefits for PhD students

From the linguistics department website:

“Students who are offered admission to the Graduate Group in Linguistics are automatically also offered a Benjamin Franklin Fellowship; this provides full support (tuition, monthly stipend, and health insurance) for five years, with three years of summer support. In the second and third years of study, the student serves as a teaching or research fellow.”

This means that PhD students do not explicitly receive benefits such as sick pay, vacation, pay, holiday pay, unemployment compensation, or Worker’s Compensation. However, you do receive guaranteed support via a fellowship, and may take sick, vacation, and holiday time provide you communicate with Katie (and your other mentors) about your plans and we all agree they will not disrupt your course or lab work.

PhD students are expected to be away during normal Penn breaks (Fall, Thanksgiving, Winter, Spring). PhD students are expected to be away in summer, if the summer support they receive requires them to work outside the lab, or they are not being supported in the summer.

Penn provides many resources for its PhD students. You can find links to these resources here: Valuing Graduate Students

Benefits for undergrads and master’s students

Student employees (including Work-study and Student workers) are only eligible for Workers’ Compensation benefits according to Penn policy:

“Student employees are not eligible for benefits such as sick pay, vacation pay, holiday pay, or unemployment compensation, but are eligible for Workers’ Compensation under the provisions of Pennsylvania law. Workers’ Compensation covers expenses for medical care from job-related injuries or occupational diseases sustained in the course of employment. A student who suffers a work related injury must report it immediately to their immediate supervisor. The supervisor must report on-the-job injuries to the department’s business administrator promptly.”

However, Penn does provide its students with many academic, health & wellness, and community resources. You can read about those at the Student Services website.

Undergraduates and master’s students are expected to be away during normal Penn breaks (Fall, Thanksgiving, Winter, and Spring). Students may work in the summer if they wish to and the lab has agreed to support them.