Honorarium Information
April 6, 2023
We often see honorariums used incorrectly when processing payments. An honorarium should be sent to a person in lieu of reimbursing specific expenses. Consider it like a speaking fee or a consulting payment.
These are some cases we see that are NOT an honorarium: teaching a class, paying a contract for a speaking engagement, or giving an honorarium to a company.
Processing a payment to an independent contractor requires the Request for Payment to an Individual (ICQ) form. On the first page of the ICQ form is the ‘Non-Contractor Payment’ section with a box for Honorarium. When paying an honorarium, this box is checked and no additional review of the activity by Human Resources Compensation is required.
Questions about how to classify a payment? Contact Human Resources Compensation at contractor_request@northwestern.edu or Vendor File Management at vendorprocessing@northwestern.edu.