State Agencies Bulletin No. 1803

Subject
December 2019 Minimum Wage Increase for Hourly Employees
Date Issued
December 24, 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this bulletin is to inform agencies of OSC’s automatic processing of the December 2019 minimum wage increases for hourly employees and provide instructions for payments not processed automatically.

Affected Employees

Employees in hourly positions who meet the eligibility criteria are affected.

Background

Chapter 54 of the Laws of 2016 increased the New York State minimum wage for employees in non-governmental positions. The Director of the Budget establishes the pay rate for State seasonal and other non-statutory positions paid using an hourly rate.

In accordance with the following bulletin the minimum hourly wage is being increased as noted:

Division of the Budget (DOB) Bulletin G-1040 (issued December 17, 2019) authorizes the minimum hourly wage be increased for seasonal and other non-statutory positions to $15.00 for State employees whose job location is within the five boroughs of New York City (NYC) (effective December 31, 2018), $13.00 for State employees whose job location is within the counties of Nassau, Suffolk or Westchester (effective December 31, 2019) or $11.80 for State employees in all other job locations (effective December 31, 2019). Employees of the State University of New York (SUNY) City University of New York (CUNY) and of the State University Construction Fund are excluded.

Effective Date(s)

The December 2019 minimum wage increase for hourly employees will be processed using the following effective dates and check dates:

Pay Cycle/Pay Period Type Effective Date Check Date
Administration 21 Current 01/09/2020 01/22/2020
Administration 21 Lag 01/09/2020 02/05/2020
Administration 21 Extra Lag 01/02/2020 02/05/2020
Institution 21 Current 01/02/2020 01/16/2020
Institution 21 Lag 01/02/2020 01/30/2020
Institution 21 Extra Lag 01/09/2020 02/13/2020

Eligibility Criteria

Employees with a Pay Basis Code of HRY on or after the appropriate effective date and an hourly rate less than the amount provided on the chart below are eligible for the 2019 minimum wage increase.

Agency Minimum Hourly Wage
Other (job location outside of NYC) $11.80
Nassau, Suffolk or Westchester County $13.00*
Job location in NYC $15.00 (effective December 31, 2018)

*The increase to $13.00 for employees whose job location is within the counties of Nassau, Suffolk or Westchester will not be automatically processed. It is the agency’s responsibility to process these additional increases, as appropriate (see Agency Actions).

OSC Actions

OSC will process the December 2019 minimum wage increase as follows:

If the employee meets the eligibility criteria and has a Payroll Status of Active, Leave with Pay or Leave of Absence on the appropriate effective date, OSC will automatically insert a row on the employee’s Job Data page using the appropriate effective date and Action/Reason code of Pay Rate Change/CRT (Chg Rate) and will increase the employee’s hourly rate to the new minimum hourly wage of $11.80.

Agency Actions – Beginning Pay Period 21 for Employees Within the Counties of Nassau, Suffolk or Westchester

Agencies must process the additional increase to $13.00 for employees whose job location is within the counties of Nassau, Suffolk or Westchester.

Agencies must submit a Pay Change on the Job Action Requests page using the Reason code CRT (Chg Rate) and the appropriate effective date as indicated on the above chart.

Agencies must update all subsequent effective dated rows, provided the employee remains in an eligible position.

Agencies that use the New York State Electronic Personnel System (NYSTEP) for compensation adjustments must also enter these adjustments through NYSTEP if the rate frequency of the position is less than the appropriate amount indicated on the chart above. Further, agencies must ensure that the employee’s job location is accurate in NYSTEP, especially for those individuals whose job location is within the counties of Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester.

Note: If an employee’s job location changes to a location with a different minimum wage in effect, the agency must update the employee’s rate to reflect the appropriate rate for the new location.

Questions

Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the Payroll Earnings mailbox.