NC State Dining & Student Centers Student Retention Bonus

2025-2026 Academic Year

NC State Dining and Student Centers are offering a retention bonus in both the fall and spring semesters for student employees who meet certain minimum requirements. The goal of the retention bonus is to help provide enough coverage in units and keep a strong student-employee workforce through the end of the semester.  The details are as follows:

We will offer a $1.00 per hour retention bonus to undergraduate and graduate students who stay employed through the semester. The minimum bonus amount will be $120 and the maximum amount will be $200. 

• The student must be employed through December 12, 2025, for the fall semester bonus, and through May 8, 2026, for the spring semester bonus.
• The student must work a minimum of 120 hours during the semester to get the bonus for that semester.
  • A student may be hired to work anytime during the year.
  • Hours worked will be calculated from August 16 through December 12 for the fall semester and from January 10 through May 8 for the spring semester.
• The student employee must work a minimum of 12 hours during the last two weeks of the semester (November 29 – December 12 for fall and April 24 – May 8 for spring).
  • Hours may be worked in any format, i.e. 12 hours in one week, 8 hours in week one and 4 hours in week two, etc.
• Eligible student employees will receive their bonus with the January 16 pay date for the fall and the June 5 pay date for the spring.

All above criteria must be met to receive the retention bonus.

Based on the average number of hours students worked, the retention bonus can be achieved by most students. In the 2025 spring semester, 340 students earned a bonus averaging $180 each!