State 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:

Both 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 the source of funding that supports their position. 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) – 12 month obligation, calendar – 9/1-8/31 (CAL ), and college year full (CYF ) for professional employees paid on an annual salary basis. Although employees appointed to any title can be paid on a FEE, BIW, or HRY mode, only employees paid on an annual salary basis may be paid on an ANN, CAL, or CYF mode.

All payrolls are lagged at least two weeks. Because of this, employees other than hourly employees receive their first full paycheck approximately four weeks following the effective dates of their appointments. For hourly employees it is approximately six weeks before they receive their first checks assuming timesheets are submitted on time.

As an example, a new full-time faculty member appointed September 1, 2006, and paid on the calendar mode would have received a check for one day's pay (Wednesday, September 1st) on the September 15, 2006, pay day because his/her appointment effective date of September 1st on the calendar (CAL ) payroll cycle was the last day of the previous pay period. On September 29, 2006, the first full check for a complete pay period following appointment (pay period Thursday, September 2, 2006 - Wednesday, September 15, 2006) would be paid – check is received two weeks after its effective payment date. It is important for new faculty appointed at the beginning of the academic year to note that they will not receive a full paycheck until the second pay period in September.

A similar pattern occurs for faculty with initial appointments for the spring semester. Generally, spring semester appointees paid on the calendar mode either must not be placed on the payroll until on or about March 1st (at the end of 13+ pay periods) or be placed on the payroll in January then placed on leave without pay in July/August for the period necessary to avoid overpayment for the completion of only a half-year of their obligation. If the new spring semester appointee paid on either the CAL or CYF modes (less than 12-month obligation but paid annually) chooses to be placed on the payroll in January, then placed on leave without pay (LWOP) in July/August, special provisions have been made for the deduction of extra health insurance premiums to cover the LWOP period before the LWOP begins. This avoids the problem of such employees having to pay the full cost of health insurance premiums during such leaves that are required to recycle the salary payments for affected employees.

An additional 5-day lag is assessed to Management Confidential employees. The 5-day lag is implemented by withholding the equivalent of one day's pay in each of the appointee's first 5 pay periods. The payroll office keeps records of the amount owed to employees for the 5-day lag and employees receive payment for this lag upon separation from service at their salary rate at that time.

The biweekly gross pay for employees paid on an “annual salary basis” in payroll modes CAL, ANN, and CYF is determined on either a 365 or 366 day basis depending on whether or not it is a leap year. During the State’s fiscal year (April 1 – March 31) in which a leap year falls (an extra day in February), employees paid in these payroll modes will notice a reduction in their gross pay even though their salary does not change. For example, the biweekly gross pay of an academic employee paid on the CAL mode will be calculated as 14/366th of his/her annual salary during a leap year and as 14/365th of the base annual salary during a regular year.

Following is information relating to the processing of the regular State payroll. State business rules require that only Personal Service Regular (PSR) positions lined-out 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. Within these limitations the different pay basis options available provide methods of payment for the different types of employee obligations.

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 payroll modes used for temporary service appointments on the regular State payroll include:

	Hourly Payment Mode (HRY) works for people charged to temporary service who are paid for the actual hours worked (usually part-time, intermittent, as needed or without a defined work pattern).
	Biweekly Payment Mode (BIW) works for people charged to temporary service funds who usually will work only for a certain number of pay periods (Most adjuncts and all graduate/teaching assistants are charged to temporary service and paid a bi-weekly rate for 10 pay periods per semester or 20 pay periods per year).
	FEE Payment Mode (FEE) works for people charged to temporary service where the person is hired to accomplish a certain task, complete a project, etc. and receive periodic FEE based payments at certain stages of completion of the work they were hired to do.

Personal Service Regular (PSR) (Note: It usually takes a minimum of 6 weeks to establish a new PSR position or to reclassify an existing one. For classified service positions requiring the approval of the Department of Civil Service and Management Confidential positions requiring the approval of SUNY System Administration, it may take longer). Following are the payment modes for annual salaried appointments to positions budgeted in PSR:

	Annual Payment Mode (ANN) is the payroll mode for employees with calendar year (365/366 days per year) obligations appointed to PSR positions lined-out on an approved SOP.
	Academic Year Paid Over 12 Months (CAL) is the payroll mode for faculty with academic year obligations paid on an annual salary basis over 12 months (9/1-8/31) on PSR positions lined-out on a SOP.
	College Year Paid Over 12 Months (CYF) is the payroll mode for professional employees with college year obligations - usually 10 month (i.e., 8/1 - 5/30) paid on an annual salary basis over 12 months (8/1-7/31) on PSR positions lined-out on a SOP.

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.

For full-time employees paid on an annual basis, Buffalo State has many payroll payment modes and a 26 pay period mode is not one of them. When an employee's annual salary is paid over a full year (CAL or CYF payroll mode for academic employees and professional employees with academic year or college year obligations, respectively; ANN for calendar year obligations), the salary is based on 365 days (normal year) and 366 days (leap year). Since each pay period covers 14 days, and 26 x 14 equals only 364, it would always take a 27th check for you to have received your full annual salary (1 day more than 26 pay periods in a normal year and 2 days more than 26 pay periods in a leap year).

The normal two-week lag will push two weeks of your earnings from one tax year into the next tax year. Of course, as the calendar rolls along, there are tax years in which you actually receive 27 checks for tax purposes.

The effective date of salary increases may fall in the middle of pay periods or cross year-end or employee employment anniversary boundaries (i.e., the first check in September -- 2nd check paid because of the lag -- for faculty paid on the CAL basis -- 9/1-8/31 -- It might include X number of days at the faculty members previous academic year salary and Y number of days at the faculty members new academic year salary if raises to faculty were effective September 1st since September 1st rarely is the first day of a 14 day pay period).

Source: Richard Meade, retired director of Human Resources, SUNY Brockport. For more information, please contact Human Resources at 878-4822 or the Payroll Office at 878-4124.