Purpose
The purpose of this bulletin is to inform agencies of OSC’s automatic processing of the January 2021 Increments and provide instructions for payments not processed automatically.
Affected Employees
Employees in Bargaining Units CB, T8, TC and GA who meet the eligibility criteria are affected.
Background
Pursuant to Section 6220 of New York State Education Law, yearly increments are to be paid in January and July for all eligible Professional Staff Congress (PSC) represented employees.
Effective Dates
Effective beginning Institution Pay Period 21C, paychecks dated 01/14/2021.
Control-D Report Available Prior to Processing
The following Control-D report will be available for agency use on 12/17/2020. This will give agencies time to correct employees’ records, if necessary, prior to the automatic processing of the January 2021 Increments. The report will be sorted by agency code, then by employee name in alphabetical order.
NHRP708 – Mass Increment Payment Exception Report
This report is a preliminary listing of employees who appear ineligible to receive a January 2021 Increment or Increment Code Update based on information available as of the date the report is produced. Included on the report is one of the following messages, which identifies the reason the employee’s record will not be updated:
- Position and Job do not match
- If the Position Number equals the NYS Position Number on the Job Data page but the Bargaining Unit, Salary Administration Plan or NYS Grade do not match.
- Increment Code Missing
- Invalid Increment Code/Salary
- If the increment code is 0101 or 0103 and the salary is equal to or greater than the ‘last one-year step’.
- If the increment code is 1116 and the salary is not equal to the ‘last one-year step’.
- If the increment code is 1114 and the salary is not equal to the ‘five-year step’.
- No Increment – Salary Off Step
- If the increment code is 0101 and the salary is not equal to one of the salary steps.
- Salary Off Step
- If the increment code is 0103 and the salary is not equal to one of the salary steps.
Agency Actions – Promotions Effective Institution Pay Period 21C
REM and RRI Titles
Agencies must review employees in Additional Remuneration (REM) Titles (HEO/Assistant Admin – Job Code 016855, Professor/Assistant Admin – Job Code 016839) and Recruitment Retention Initiative (RRI) Titles with Increment Code 9999 to determine if the employee is due a January 2021 Increment.
If the employee is due an increment, the agency must submit a Pay Change on the Job Action Requests page using the Reason code INC (Increment), the appropriate salary and Increment Code 9999 effective 01/01/2021.
Distinguished Professor Titles
OSC will not process Increments for eligible employees in the Distinguished Professor titles with a Salary Administration Plan of C01 and Job Code 015937 (Dist Prof), 016042 (University Professor) or 016094 (Vistng Distngd Prof). The agency must submit a Pay Change on the Job Action Requests page using the Reason code INC (Increment), the appropriate salary and the appropriate increment code.
Promotions Effective January 1, 2021
To allow for automatic processing, promotions for unclassified staff effective 01/01/2021 should not be submitted until Institution Pay Period 22C, paychecks dated 01/28/2021. Agencies must include the appropriate 2021 increment code on the Job Action Requests page.
OSC Actions
OSC will process the January 2021 Increments and Increment Code Updates for employees who on the payment effective date:
- Are in a grade 980 position; and
- Have a Pay Basis Code of ANN; and
- Have a Payroll Status of Active or Leave With Pay; and
- Meet the eligibility criteria for one of the following increment codes.
Exceptions
OSC will not process Increments for eligible employees in the Distinguished Professor titles. Refer to Agency Actions – Institution Pay Period 21C for processing information.
Increment Code 0101
If the employee’s salary in effect on 01/01/2021 is equal to one of the salary steps and is below the ‘last one-year step the salary chart currently in effect, OSC will automatically insert a row on the employee’s Job Data page effective 01/01/2021 using the Action/Reason code of Pay Rate Change/INC (Increment) and will increase the employee’s salary to the next higher salary step on the same salary schedule.
Increment Code 1116
If the employee’s salary in effect on 01/01/2021 is equal to the ‘last one-year step’ on the salary chart currently in effect, OSC will automatically insert a row on the employee’s Job Data page effective 01/01/2021 using the Action/Reason code of Pay Rate Change/INC (Increment) and will increase the employee’s salary to the ‘five-year step’ on the same salary schedule.
Increment Code 1114
If the employee’s salary in effect on 01/01/2021 is equal to the ‘five-year step’ on the salary chart currently in effect OSC will automatically insert a row on the employee’s Job Data page effective 01/01/2021 using the Action/Reason code of Pay Rate Change/INC (Increment) and will increase the employee’s salary to the ‘seven-year step’ on the same salary schedule.
Increment Code Update Processing
OSC will automatically update the increment code on the inserted row for employees who receive an increment as follows:
| Current Code | Updated Code |
|---|---|
| 0101 | 0101 if the new salary is below the ‘last one-year step’ |
| 0101 | 1121 if the new salary equals the ‘last one-year step’ |
| 1114 | No automatic update |
| 1116 | No automatic update |
OSC will automatically insert a row on the employee’s Job Data page effective 01/01/2021 using the Action/Reason code of Data Change/CIC (Chg IncCd/or AnnDT/or FIS Sal) and update the following increment code:
| Current Code | Update Code |
|---|---|
| 0103 | 0101 if the current salary is equal to a salary step and below the ‘last one-year step’ |
Control-D Reports After Processing
The following Control-D reports will be available for agency review after the automatic payments have been processed. All reports will be sorted by agency code, then by employee name in alphabetical order.
NHRP704 – Mass Increment Payment Report
This report identifies all employees who received the automatic January 2021 Increment. The report includes the Action/Reason code used as well as the old compensation rate and new compensation rate.
NHRP708 – Mass Increment Payment Exception Report
This report identifies employees who did not receive an automatic January 2021 Increment or Increment Code Update. Included on the report is one of the following messages which will identify the reason the employee’s record was not updated:
- Position and Job do not match
- Increment Code Missing
- Invalid Increment Code/Salary
- No Increment – Salary Off Step
- Salary Off Step
See Control-D Report Available Prior to Processing for an explanation of these messages.
Agency Actions-Institution Pay Period 22C-Payments Not Processed Automatically
If an employee was eligible for a January 2021 Increment or Increment Code Update but was not processed automatically in Institution Pay Period 21C, the agency must determine the reason the employee was not processed and make the necessary corrections to the Position Data or Job Data page.
If the employee is not processed automatically and the message on the NHRP708 is No Increment – Salary Off Step or Salary Off Step and the reason is other than a Salary Above Base (SAB) or Recruitment Retention Initiative (RRI), the agency must review the attributes of the Position Data or Job Data page, determine the inconsistency and take the appropriate action.
In addition, the agency must submit a Pay Change on the Job Action Requests page using the Reason code INC (Increment) and the appropriate salary and increment code or a Data Chg on the Job Action Requests page using the Reason code CIC (Chg IncCd/or AnnDt/or FIS Sal) and the appropriate increment code effective 01/01/2021.
Tax Information
These monies are taxable income and are subject to all employment taxes and income taxes. These monies will be included in the employee’s taxable gross and will be reported on the employee’s Form W-2.
Questions
Questions regarding eligibility for this payment should be directed to the Director of University Payroll Systems and Operations.
Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the Payroll Earnings mailbox.