This bulletin supersedes Payroll Bulletin 1735.2

Purpose

The purpose of this bulletin is to inform agencies of the new Reason Code to be used in Job Data to pay an annual employee the annual equivalent of the Division of the Budget (DOB) approved minimum wage.

Affected Employees

Employees in annual positions, including those working on a part-time basis, who meet the eligibility criteria are affected.

Background

DOB Bulletin G-1039 (issued December 27, 2018 and revised June 18, 2019) authorized 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), $12.00 for State employees whose job location is within the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, or Westchester, or $11.10 for State employees in all other job locations.

DOB Bulletin G-1040 (issued December 17, 2019) authorized the minimum hourly wage for seasonal and other non-statutory positions continue at $15.00 for State employees whose job location is within the five boroughs of NYC, and be increased to $13.00 for State employees whose job location is within the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, or Westchester, or $11.80 for State employees in all other job locations.

Currently, some employees in the five boroughs of NYC may have an annual salary less than the hourly equivalent of $15.00 per hour.

Per an Agreement between the Civil Service Employees Association and the State signed 03/02/2020, eligible employees should receive at least the annualized equivalent of $15.00 per hour ($15 x 2088 = $31,320). The annual minimum wage is subject to general salary increases and the application of performance advances.

OSC has created a new Reason Code to use to update the Job Data record in PayServ to increase the salary of affected employees up to the annualized DOB approved minimum wage.

This bulletin supersedes Payroll Bulletin 1735.2 Minimum Wage Differential for Annual Employees. The procedure to pay the minimum wage differential using Additional Pay Earns Code MWD has been discontinued and replaced by the procedure to use the new Reason Code to pay employees a base salary equal to the annualized DOB approved minimum wage.

Effective Date(s)

The Increase to Minimum Wage on Job Data will be processed beginning with the following effective dates and check dates:

Pay Cycle/Pay Period Type	Effective Date	Check Date
Institution 26 Current	01/01/2019	03/26/2020
Institution 25 Lag	01/01/2019	03/26/2020
Institution 24 Extra Lag	01/01/2019	03/26/2020
Administration 26 Current	01/01/2019	04/01/2020
Administration 25 Lag	01/01/2019	04/01/2020
Administration 24 Extra Lag	01/01/2019	04/01/2020

Eligibility Criteria

Employees must meet each of the following criteria in order to receive the annualized minimum wage:

• Work in one of the five boroughs of NYC; and
• Have a Pay Basis Code of ANN on or after the appropriate effective date; and
• Have an annual rate of less than $31,320.

OSC Actions

OSC has taken the following actions:

• Created new Reason code MWS (Minimum Wage Salary) to be used on the Job Data and Job Action Request pages to increase an eligible employee’s salary to the annualized minimum wage rate;
• Identified employees in an eligible location with a base salary less than $31,320 in effect on or after 01/01/2019 through present;
• Provided agencies (current deptid) with a list of eligible employees identified;
• Entered PAY/MWS effective on or after 01/01/2019 through present to update the Job Data record for all eligible employees identified;
• End dated Earns Code MWD (Minimum Wage Differential) on the Additional Pay page of employees receiving the differential effective on or after 01/01/2019.

Control-D Reports Available After Processing

The pay change updates processed by OSC during Pay Period 25L (Institution and Administration) will be reported on the NPAY776 Consolidate Correction Report, as noted below:

NPAY776 – 03/26/2020
Institution 26 Current
Institution 25 Lag
Institution 24 Extra Lag

NPAY776 – 04/01/2020
Administration 26 Current
Administration 25 Lag
Administration 25 Extra Lag

Agency Actions – Beginning Institution or Administration Pay Period 26L

Employees Hired or Rehired to an Annual Position in Institution and Administration Pay Period 26L and Later

Beginning Institution and Administration Pay Period 26L, agencies must ensure employees hired or rehired to an annual position in an eligible location within the five boroughs of NYC receive no less than the annual equivalent of the DOB approved minimum wage.

The following transaction must be entered through the Job Action Request page to pay the minimum wage equivalent to an annual employee:

• PAY/MWS with the annual amount of $31,320

Employees Who Appeared on the NPAY776 – Consolidated Correction Report

Employees whose records were updated by OSC will appear on the NPAY776 Consolidated Correction Report as noted in the above section Control-D Reports Available After Processing.

Agencies should review the records of employees included on this report and email questions to the Payroll Earnings mailbox. Please include the agency Deptid and MWS in the subject line.

Automatic Retroactive Processing

OSC will automatically calculate retroactive adjustments for regular earnings and Time Entry earnings that are calculated by the system based on annual salary, such as OT for Annuals (OTA) and Holiday Pay (HPA), resulting from payment of the MWS to annual salaried employees.

If an employee receives a payment and has worked in more than one agency but has been paid by all agencies in the same Employee Record Number since the effective date of the payment, all retroactive adjustments will be paid in the most current agency.

If an employee receives a payment, has worked in more than one agency, and has been paid in more than one Employee Record Number since the effective date of the payment, the retroactive adjustments will be paid in the most current agency of the Employee Record Number in which the payment was made.

Agency Actions - Retroactive Processing

Reporting Retroactive Adjustments

Time Entry earnings codes that are submitted with an amount will not be adjusted automatically. Therefore, beginning in Institution or Administration Pay Period 26L, agencies must report the adjustment amount for earnings codes such as Extra Time Override (EXO) and Regular Salary Override (RGO).

Correcting an Automatic Retroactive Adjustment

When certain conditions exist in an employee’s record, the automatic retroactive adjustment may be incorrect. Therefore, the agency is responsible for identifying employees who meet the following conditions and, if necessary, submitting the necessary adjustment:

• If an employee has a check returned or exchanged on an AC-230 for dates on or after the effective date of the payment, the payroll system does not consider the AC-230 when calculating the automatic retroactive adjustment.
• If earnings were previously reported using Earnings Code RGS and a date range that exceeded the number of days reported, the system will calculate the adjustment of earnings based on the number of workdays within the range.
• Adjustments for earnings that are calculated automatically, such as OT for Annuals (OTA), will be calculated incorrectly if the dates previously reported as a single entry on the Time Entry page overlap the effective date of the payment. The system will calculate an adjustment for all earnings reported in a single entry based on the salary in effect on the Earnings End Date.
• For employees who had a change reported on the Job Data page, since the effective date of the payment and the action resulted in an overpayment of earnings, the automatic negative retroactive adjustment may not have been processed because the overpayment was either not recoverable or was recovered using an overpayment earnings code or an AC-230. In this case, the negative retroactive adjustment may be re-generated when the payment is processed. OSC will turn off (not process) the automatic negative adjustment for these employees since in most cases these overpayments were either not recoverable or recovered using another method.

If an overpayment of earnings is identified after the automatic payment is processed but before the paycheck is received by the employee, the employee must be notified of the overpayment and the adjustment that will be reported in a subsequent pay period.

Submitting an Adjustment

To process a retroactive adjustment or correct an automatic retroactive adjustment, agencies must submit the following information on the Time Entry page or the Time Entry Interface (NPAY502) using the Earnings Code AJR:

Earnings Begin Date:	The first date included in the adjustment
Earnings End Date:	The last date included in the adjustment
Earn Code:	AJR
Amount:	Amount to be adjusted
Comments:	An explanation of the adjustment

Military Stipend Leave

OSC has determined no employees were eligible to receive the MWS on Military Stipend Leave for the period of 01/01/2019 through Pay Period 25L end date of 03/26/2020 (Institution) or 03/18/2020 (Administration) at the time the PAY/MWS updates to employee records were processed in PayServ.

Deduction Information

All general deductions for employees whose status is Terminated, Retired, or Deceased will be automatically cancelled by OSC with the exception of percentage based dues and the following:

Code	Description
400	CUNY 403(b) ROTH
403	Supplemental Ret Ann CUNY
404	SUNY 403(b) Plan
406	Strike/Discip Fine
409	CUNY Disciplinary Fine
410	Health Care Spending Account
420	NY Dependent Care Contribution
425	Repay State Loans/Debt
426	Higher Ed Repay State Loans
428	Dependent Care
432	ED TDA Copeland
433	Total Unemployment Ins Owed
442	Pre-Tax Adoption
485	VSP Repayment
500	Medicare Deficiency
501	Social Security Deficiency
502	NYS SS/Medicare Deficiency
580	CUNY Medicare Deficiency Flat
581	CUNY SS Deficiency Flat Amt
582	CUNY SS/Med Deficiency
603	TIAA Before Tax Arrears
604	TIAA After Tax Arrears
GARNSH	Garnishments
HIATRG	Regular After Tax Health
HIATSP	Special After Tax Health Adj

Tax Information

The adjustments (AJR and Retro (RXX)) are supplemental taxable income and will be included in the employee’s taxable gross subject to all employment and income taxes.

Federal, State, and New York City income tax withholding will be calculated using the Aggregate method. Yonkers income tax withholding will be calculated using the Flat Rate method (1.61135% for Yonkers residents and 0.50% for Yonkers non-residents).

Undeliverable Checks

When a valid payroll check is undeliverable due to the agency’s inability to locate the employee, the agency should follow the Agency Actions identified in Payroll Bulletin No. 1786 Non-negotiated and/or Undeliverable New York State Payroll Checks.

Checks issued to eligible employees who are now deceased should be returned with a completed Next of Kin Affidavit (Form AC 934-P), original death certificate, and a Report of Check Exchange (Form AC 1476-P). If a Next of Kin Affidavit has been previously submitted for a deceased employee’s payroll check, OSC will accept a photocopy of this form along with a new Report of Check Exchange.

Payroll Register and Employee’s Paycheck/Advice

All retroactive adjustments will be displayed on the Payroll Register using the appropriate Earnings Code with amount paid and will be displayed on the employee’s paycheck stub or direct deposit advice using the appropriate Earnings Description with amount paid unless the number of earnings codes exceeds 13. Agencies should utilize Locked Query LQ_049_ARCHIVED_EE_PAYSTUB to identify a complete list of regular earnings and retroactive adjustments if there are more than 13 earnings codes.

Questions

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

Questions regarding position information may be directed to the Position Management mailbox.

Questions regarding military information may be directed to the Military Stipend mailbox.

Questions regarding deductions may be directed to the Payroll Deduction mailbox.