State Agencies Bulletin No. 407

Subject
Changes to Additional Pay Processing
Date Issued
July 1, 2003

Purpose

To provide an overview of Additional Pay and highlight the changes resulting from the Payroll System upgrade.

Affected Employees

All Employees

Overview

Additional Pay is compensation paid an employee in addition to the base salary. The Additional Pay earnings are ongoing for a period of time, or a one-time payment that must be used in the calculation of overtime per the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and therefore cannot be paid through the Time Entry process. Payments include:

  • Annual payments, such as Location Pay, are continuous biweekly payments.
  • Biweekly payments, such as adjustment codes, Preshift Briefing, Overpayment Recovery, or Salary Withholding, are paid or recovered at a specified amount for a specified period of time.
  • One-time payments, such as PEF or Judicial Longevity, are used in overtime calculations per FLSA.

Earnings available to be paid through the Additional Pay process are limited to those included in the Earnings Program for the position.

Path

Compensate Employees>Maintain Payroll Data (US) > Use>Additional Pay (Agency)

New Fields

None

System Processing Changes

To assist agencies in the processing of additional payments, the following changes have been made to the Additional Pay page:

  • Minimums and Maximums have been set up in the Payroll System for various Earnings Codes. An error message will be received if the amount entered is outside these parameters. If an agency can demonstrate that a different amount is acceptable, they must contact the OSC PATS unit via email to request an increase or decrease in these limits.
  • Required fields have been established in the Payroll System for each earnings code. A page cannot be saved if all required fields are not filled in. An error message will be received noting the missing field.
  • Because Additional Earnings is now a required field for many Earnings Codes, processing certain transactions has changed. As in the current system, earnings do not automatically prorate when they end mid-pay period with no corresponding status change removing the employee from the payroll. The system will pay the earnings for the entire pay period even if only a portion is due. Different steps are now necessary to prevent the overpayment. Since the earnings amount needs to remain in the Additional Earnings field, a corresponding adjustment code must be entered as a negative, reducing the total earnings to the correct amount.
  • A new Earnings Code LOM has been established for all employees receiving $200 Location Pay in Monroe County and certain employees receiving an amount other than $1200 at Hudson Valley DDSO (51210). Any changes for these employees should be made using the new code. OSC will convert the additional pay records of these employees to add the new code.
  • Edits have been established that will prevent an agency from entering invalid Earnings Codes for part-time employees. Earnings not payable to part-time employees are Inconvenience Pay (IPF and IPP), Location Pay (LOC) for agencies other than the Unified Courts System (UCS), Security Differential (SED) and Supplemental Location Differential (SPL).
  • Edits have been established for certain agency-specific earnings to prevent other agencies from selecting the earnings.
    1. Administrative Maintenance (AMP) is only available to employees in the Department of Environmental Conservation.
    2. Non-taxable Lieu of Expense (LEP) is only available to employees in the Banking Department.
    3. Employee Recognition Award (ORA) and OGS Bonus (OGS) are only available to employees in the Office of General Services.

Agency Changes

The amount of earnings must always be entered in the Annual Addl Earnings field for all changes made to annual earnings. If there is a mid-pay period change to annual earnings, and there is no pay status change on Job Data appointing or removing the employee from the payroll, the system will pay the earnings for the entire pay period. Therefore, the agency must submit an adjustment for that earnings code to recover any overpayment to the employee in the pay period that the change occurs.

The new Earnings code LOM must be used for all changes for employees whose Location pay is not $1200.

The agency must respond to all warning and error messages and change the transaction accordingly.

Questions

Questions that relate to changes to Additional Pay processing resulting from the Payroll System upgrade may be directed to the Payroll Audit mailbox.

Prior to August 4, questions will be answered within two business days. After August 4, questions will be answered within 24 hours.