Purpose

The purpose of this bulletin is to inform agencies of OSC’s automatic processing of the December 2020 minimum wage increases for hourly employees and provide instructions for payments not processed automatically, including increases for employees whose annual salary is below the annualized equivalent of the minimum wage for their work location.

Affected Employees

Employees in hourly or annual 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-1041 (issued December 17, 2020) authorizes the minimum hourly wage be increased for seasonal and other non-statutory positions to $14.00 for State employees whose job location is within the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, or Westchester (effective December 31, 2020) or $12.50 for State employees in all other job locations (effective December 31, 2020). Employees of the State University of New York (SUNY) City University of New York (CUNY) and of the State University Construction Fund are excluded.

The minimum hourly wage for State employees whose job location is within the five boroughs of New York City (NYC) (effective December 31, 2018) will continue at $15.00.

In addition, eligible full or part time annual employees should receive at least the annualized equivalent of the minimum hourly rate associated with their position location (hourly rate x 2088 = annualized equivalent).

Effective Dates

The December 2020 minimum wage increase for hourly employees will be processed using the following effective dates and check dates:

These effective dates must be used for manually processed transactions.

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 2020 minimum wage increase:

*The increase to $14.00 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).

Employees with a Pay Basis Code of ANN on or after the appropriate effective date and a salary less than the annualized equivalent of the minimum hourly rate for their work location are eligible to receive an increase to the appropriate annualized minimum.

OSC Actions

OSC has created Reason Code MWH (Minimum Wage Hourly) to use when paying the minimum wage increase to hourly employees. This code may be used with Action of PAY (Pay Change), HIR (HIRE), CCH (Concurrent Hire), REH (Rehire), POS (Position Change), and XFR (Transfer).

In addition, Reason Code MWS (Minimum Wage Salary) has been updated to be used with the Action Codes listed above.

OSC will process the December 2020 minimum wage increase for hourly employees 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/MWH (Minimum Wage Hourly) and will increase the employee’s hourly rate to the new minimum hourly wage of $12.50.

Agency Actions – Hourly Employees

Beginning in Pay Period 21, agencies must process the additional increase to $14.00 for hourly 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 MWH (Minimum Wage Hourly) 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 using 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.

Agency Actions – Annual Employees

Agencies must submit a Pay Change on the Job Action Requests page using the Reason code MWS (Minimum Wage Salary) and the appropriate effective date as indicated on the above chart to increase the annual salary of eligible employees whose salary falls below the annualized equivalent of the minimum wage associated with their position location as follows:

Questions

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