SUNY Bulletin No. SU-300

Subject
December 2020 Increase to Minimum Wage for Employees Employed by the State University of New York (SUNY)
Date Issued
January 6, 2021

Purpose

The purpose of this bulletin is to inform campuses 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

SUNY 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.

A Memorandum dated 09/14/2016 from Nancy L. Zimpher, Chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY), authorizes the alignment of the minimum wage paid to hourly employees and student workers with the minimum wage levels approved as part of the 2016/17 enacted State budget.

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:

Pay Cycle/Pay Period Type  Effective Date  Check Date 
Administration 21 Lag 01/07/2021 02/03/2021
Institution 21 Extra Lag 01/07/2021 02/11/2021

These effective dates should be used by agencies for transactions processed manually.

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:

Position Location by County Minimum Hourly Wage
Job location in NYC $15.00 (effective December 31, 2018) will continue 
Nassau, Suffolk or Westchester County $14.00*
Other (job location outside of NYC, Nassau, Suffolk or Westchester Counties)  $12.50

*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 campus’ 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, campuses must process the additional increase to $14.00 for hourly employees whose job location is within the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, or Westchester.

Campuses 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.

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

Campuses 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, campuses 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

Campuses 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:

Position Location by County Annualized Rate/Associated Hourly Rate
Job location in NYC $31,320/$15.00 (effective December 31, 2018) will continue 
Nassau, Suffolk or Westchester County $29,232/$14.00
Other (job location outside of NYC, Nassau, Suffolk or Westchester Counties)  $26,100/$12.50

Questions

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