Exempt Pay Periods
yakley
62 Posts
We have a two week pay period beginning on Sunday and ending on Saturday. Non exempts report hours worked, use of PTO and are paid the following Friday.
Exempts report absences for a two week period ending Saturday, but check is issued on the day before. Same pay cycle but different reporting periods.
Non exempt pay period 5/4/08 - 5/17/08 - payday 5/23.
Exempt reporting period 5/11/08 - 5/24/08 - payday 5/23.
Suggestion has been made to hold exempt pay for one week back and have the time worked and absence reporting the same.
Payroll Dept says current reporting period is extra work. I don't see why. I say exempts will receive their salary unless a permitted is made regardless of when absences are reported.
How often do your exempts report absences? Are they paid on the same pay cycle as Non exempts?
What am I missing?
I say change our reporting period and move on - no hold back necessary.
Exempts report absences for a two week period ending Saturday, but check is issued on the day before. Same pay cycle but different reporting periods.
Non exempt pay period 5/4/08 - 5/17/08 - payday 5/23.
Exempt reporting period 5/11/08 - 5/24/08 - payday 5/23.
Suggestion has been made to hold exempt pay for one week back and have the time worked and absence reporting the same.
Payroll Dept says current reporting period is extra work. I don't see why. I say exempts will receive their salary unless a permitted is made regardless of when absences are reported.
How often do your exempts report absences? Are they paid on the same pay cycle as Non exempts?
What am I missing?
I say change our reporting period and move on - no hold back necessary.
Comments
Our exempts fill out a weekly time sheet and report absences and vacation there.
If someone terminates in the middle of a cycle and have already been paid for the time, we reduce the next pay check. If it's too late, we do nothing.
record time ? I think exempts can report absences or use of Paid Time Off for any period and it will not effect their pay checks.
Is that right?
Yakley, your reporting periods sound like an accounting nightmare to me. Your crew obviously has to handle 2 separate pay runs, and keep track of 2 separate accruals. Not too bad if they get paid on separate days, but this way...
I would do what I could to get them on the same schedule, though that might be harder to pull off than you think (unless the company is willing to pay exempts for an extra week). If you can manage it, you will reduce your company's resources currently being wasted on the extra processing and accounting procedures.
Good luck!
Nae
I agree with Nae. I think your payroll staff is working harder than they need to. My staff and I troubleshoot pay issues in our company, and I can't imaging having to change the mode with each question to ensure I'm talking about the correct pay period for PTO accruals and payroll deductions. It must be a nightmare.
I'd agree to make it easier for the payroll and accounting staff.
They would get paid for one week while nonexempts would receive two weeks pay.
I don't see a violation of any kind if we just change the period of absence reporting. Do you?
The exempts definitely don't want to just receive one week's pay.
Thanks.
Paying an extra week will make your exempt happy, but your bottom line will be hit hard, and your other employees won't be happy about the free pay the exempt employees are getting.
If you decide to just equalize things, be sure and give your exempt employees several months notice. I would also come up with some kind of small bonus or treat to help make the medicine go down easier. You might also consider giving them 3/4 pay for 2 pay periods instead of 1/2 one and then full the next. Anyway you go you are going to have unhappy employees. I would have some serious discussions about possibilities and ramifications before I made any decisions.
Good luck!
Nae
We have been doing it this way for about 10 years now. I don't see a problem. It doesn't take any longer to run two smaller groups of pay than it does to run one larger group.
You would have to hold a week back to change it unless your company is willing to pay all the salaried employees an extra week of pay.
Shirley
Several years ago, we had to do something similar to go from paying on the 25th for the full month (through the end of the month) to get to where we are now paying in arrears. That meant making approximately a 1/2 month salary adjustment for one payroll period so we could cutoff on/around the 15th.
We offered employees two options: get the full month pay and owe us 1/2 month salary to be paid back when they leave us (the dollar amount never changes) OR let us reduce the salary by 1/2 month for that one payroll period. With about one exception, everyone went for signing the agreement to pay back the 1/2 month salary when they leave. Keep in mind the reason for this was that we were paying for that 1/2 month twice by switching from a payroll ending at the end of the month to mid-month.
Since then, we have offered a couple of times to let folks pay back that amount with vacation leave. That has worked well too.
Lengthy story -- but, this is a much cleaner way for us to do payroll and it has worked well.
Cheryl