Payroll FAQs

Buffalo State processes four New York State payrolls that are administered by the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC). The biweekly paid payrolls include:

Budgeted positions funded from Personal Service Regular (PSR) and Temporary Service (TS) positions can be paid on the regular State payroll. All appointments to student payrolls and the GA payroll must be funded from temporary service funds (TS).

Student employees appointed to either the student assistant (SA) or college work-study program (CWSP) payrolls are paid on an hourly basis through the timely submission of biweekly timesheets. Pay periods for all payrolls begin on Thursday and end on Wednesday. However, the payroll cycles are alternating--the regular State payroll and GA payroll are paid one week and the two student payrolls (SA and CWSP) are paid the next week with everyone getting paid every other week on cycle.

While the GA and student payrolls have restricted payment modes of biweekly rate and hourly, respectively, employees appointed to the regular State payroll may be paid on one of several payment modes depending upon the nature of their appointments and their funding source. The payment modes include hourly (HRY), biweekly rate (BIW), and fee (FEE ) for employees paid on other than an annual salary basis and annual (ANN, CAL, CYF). Definitions are below.

New York State employees are paid on a biweekly lag basis, which means that payment is made either two or three weeks after the completion of the pay period.

If you are an employee on the administration payroll (e.g., faculty professionals, graduate assistants), your first check or direct deposit advice will be issued at the end of the 2nd pay period after you begin working. For most people, it is approximately 4 weeks after you begin work. You may or may not receive a full paycheck for the first pay period, depending upon when your first day of work occurred in the pay cycle, and if your bargaining unit includes a provision for salary withholding.

If you are an employee on the student Assistant or federal college work study payroll, your first check or direct deposit advice will be issued 1 week after the end of your second pay period worked. For most people, it is approximately 5 weeks after you begin work. Since these payrolls have an hourly pay basis, your check or advice should reflect all hours worked in the first pay period.

All payment dates are dependent upon payroll deadlines. If appointment paperwork is received after the payroll deadline, a significant delay in payment may occur.

(Chapter 78 of the Laws of 1982 authorized the State of New York to implement the two-week lag pursuant to agreements with the unions representing State employees.)

In 1990, legislation was signed that included a feature calling for a "salary withholding and lump sum payment program". An additional five-day lag is assessed to CSEA, PEF, Management Confidential Classified, and Management Confidential employees. The five-day lag is implemented by withholding the equivalent of one day's pay in each of the appointee's first five pay periods. The payroll office keeps records of the amount owed to employees for the five-day lag and employees receive payment for this lag upon separation from service at their salary rate at that time.

State business rules require that only Personal Service Regular (PSR) positions on an approved Schedule of Positions (SOP) can be paid on an annual salary basis. All positions charged to Temporary Service (TS) must be paid either hourly, biweekly, or on a fee basis.

Temporary Service (TS) Temporary Service funds are provided in state budgets to provide for substitutes, part-time appointees, and other temporary support appointments for short term projects or staffing needs. The pay basis modes for temporary service appointments include:

	Hourly Payment Mode (HRY) - employees who are paid for the actual hours worked (usually part-time, intermittent, as needed or without a defined work pattern)
	Biweekly Payment Mode (BIW) - employees who usually work for a certain number of pay periods. All part-time faculty and graduate assistants are charged to temporary service and paid a biweekly rate for 10 pay periods per semester or 20 pay periods per year
	FEE Payment Mode (FEE) - employees who are hired to accomplish a specific task or project and receive periodic FEE based payments at certain stages of completion

Personal Service Regular (PSR) The pay basis modes for annual salaried appointments in positions budgeted in PSR include:

	ANN (Annual) - employees with 365/366 days per year obligation paid over 12 months
	CAL (Calendar) - employees (e.g., faculty) with an academic year obligation paid over 12 months
	CYF (College Year Full) - professional employees with a college year obligation (less than 12 months) paid over 12 months

Note: In accordance with rules issued by OSC, salary increases cannot be made retroactively more than two pay periods plus the one in which the raise is processed unless provided for in legislation passed to implement collective bargaining unit agreements providing retroactive pay. OSC may approve exceptions if justification is provided that includes an acceptable reason for the agency’s failure to approve and process the salary adjustment on time.

Since a fiscal year cannot be divided equally into biweekly periods, computation of the biweekly wage is made by dividing the annual salary by the number of calendar days in the fiscal year (365 or in the case of a leap year, 366) and multiplying this result by fourteen, the number of calendar days in a biweekly period. To reduce this process to one step, the fractions 14/365 and 14/366 are converted to multiplication factors: .038356 (non-leap year) and .038251 (leap year).

To illustrate this, we’ll use the annual salary of $60,687 to compute the salary for 2007. Both multiplication factors, leap year and non-leap year, are used as Fiscal Year 2006-07 is a non-leap year and 2007-08 is a leap year. This employee is on the Administration Lag payroll cycle.

The amount of gross annual earnings for 2007 will be $60,399.43.

Normally, there are 26 pay periods during a calendar year. Due to the idiosyncrasies in the calendar and the State's payroll cycle, State employees occasionally receive 27 paychecks in a calendar year, instead of 26. When this occurs, the employee's gross annual earnings will be higher than the annual salary.

Current and former State employees may contact the Payroll Office at 878-4124 for information regarding employment with New York State from 1998 to the present.

For information regarding employment prior to 1998, visit the Office of the State Comptroller (scroll down to Employment Verification Requests) for forms and instructions.