Paying & Employing Undergraduate Researchers
- Students must be paid for all hours worked.
- Time spent on mandatory employee trainings should go on timesheets/WorkDay.
- During the Fall and Spring semesters, students cannot work more than 20 hours per week from all jobs on campus combined unless that have special permission from the Student Employment Office to work 25 hours per week. During the summer, students may work up to 40 hours per week when they are not enrolled in classes.
- Students should never be scheduled during class time
- On average, research students work 5-10 hours per week during the academic year, but each student’s course load and research workload will vary and should be taken into account.
- Consider giving your research student time off for mid-terms/finals.
You must directly tell students your expectations. For many students, this may be their first job, so do not assume they know office communication and courtesy. You will likely need to teach them the basics of workplace etiquette.
The Office of Undergraduate Research recommends a starting hourly wage of $12/hour for all undergraduate research student workers. Students with more experience should be given a higher pay rate. [Note: advanced research students funded with a Project Grant from our office are paid a minimum of $15/hour.]
- The median hourly wage on campus across all student worker jobs is $10/hour. Undergraduate researcher student workers have a higher level of responsibility and skillset required than the vast majority of these jobs and should be compensated for their work appropriately. For example, we pay our Office Student Workers a starting pay of $10/hour for a job that entails completing simple office tasks, but we pay our Project Grant recipients a minimum of $15/hour to conduct research with a faculty mentor.
To pay a student more than $15/hour requires a brief budget justification. Here is an example of the budget justification used by our office:
Pay justification for [Student’s First and Last Name}:
[Student’s First Name] is an experienced student participating in research. Due to this experience, his/her/their skill set, and the requirements of this position he/she/they should be paid $15.50/hour.
Pay rate increases: students should be given a $.50 increase to their hourly pay rate after each semester worked.
April 2024 Student Employment Wages (provided by Student Employment.)
| Range of Pay | $7.25 to $69.45 |
| Average | $10.40 |
| % of jobs at $7.25 | 5.26% |
| % of job less than $8.00 | 8.36% |
| % of jobs $20 and over | .92% |
| of jobs $10 or more | 62.37% |
| % of jobs $12 or more | 23.34% |
RS17 information as distributed by Student Employment.
Updated as of March 6, 2026:
Effective immediately, undergraduate student employees in research positions are no longer required to complete a RS 17 employment and education verification screening.
However, students in research positions should continue to be hired using the Student Research job profile in Workday. The only change is that an approved RS 17 screening is no longer required to hire undergraduate research student employees.
Interim Process Guidance
While the RS 17 attachment requirement is in the process of being removed from the Hire process in Workday, please follow the guidance below:
- For hires of undergraduate student employees in research positions, you may attach a document indicating that RS 17 is no longer required in place of the approved screening documentation.
- If you have any Hire transactions currently in progress that are waiting on an approved RS 17 for an undergraduate research position, the screening is no longer needed and the Hire may proceed without it.
Updates to remove the required approved screening attachment in Workday are expected to be completed during the week of March 16.
This change applies to undergraduate students only. Please refer to LSU HRM for all other worker types.