Purpose:

The purpose of this bulletin is to provide agencies with instructions for processing the new Recurring Increment Payment.

Affected Employees:

CUNY employees represented by District Council 37 (DC-37) in Locals 375, 983, 2627, 384 (including EOC titles) and 2054 are affected.

Background:

In accordance with the September 20, 2023 Memorandum signed by Carmelo Batista Jr. and the agreement reached between CUNY and DC-37 in the 2017-2021 round of negotiations, CUNY agreed to establish a 5 Year Recurring Increment Payment for employees represented by Locals 375, 983, and 2627, and a 10 Year Recurring Increment Payment for employees represented by Locals 384 and 2054. These payments are in accordance with the union’s decision on the utilization of its ACF/Equity allotted collective bargaining agreement funds.

Effective Dates:

The new Recurring Increment Payment (Earnings Code CRP) is effective beginning 02/01/2019 for employees meeting the eligibility requirements outlined in the Eligibility Criteria section. Payments will be made beginning in Institution pay period 09C paycheck dated 08/08/2024.

Eligibility Criteria:

CUNY employees represented by DC-37 in the Locals listed below are eligible for the applicable Recurring Increment Payment amount upon attaining the required years of service in a Title/Occupational Group.

5 Year Recurring Increment Payment Schedule

10 Year Recurring Increment Payment Schedule

Note: * The hourly CRP amount is rounded to two decimals for payroll processing purposes.

• Full-time annual employees who already have the required years of service in an eligible Title/Occupational Group on or before 02/01/2019, are eligible for the applicable Recurring Increment Payment effective 02/01/2019.
• Hourly employees who already have the required years of equivalent prorated service in an eligible Title/Occupational Group on or before 02/01/2019, (i.e. had worked the equivalent work hours of the required years at 1827 work hours per year for a 35-hour per week title or 2088 work hours per year for a 40-hour per week title) are eligible for the applicable Recurring Increment Payment effective 02/01/2019.
• Full-time annual and hourly employees who attain the required years of service or equivalent prorated years of service after 02/01/2019, are eligible to receive the Recurring Increment Payment effective on the appropriate quarterly begin date (January 1, April 1, July 1, or October 1) subsequent to attaining the required years of service.
  • There is no proration or retroactive payment for the time between attaining the required years of service and the beginning of the quarter.

Note: Only service in a paid status (Payroll Status of Active or Leave With Pay) shall be used to calculate the qualifying years of service. A continuous year of service shall be a full year of service without a break of more than 31 days.

OSC Actions:

Earnings Codes

OSC has created the following Additional Pay Earnings Codes to process the new Recurring Increment Payment:

In addition, OSC has created Action/Reason Code Pay Rate Change/CRP (Recurring Increment Payment) to add the Recurring Increment Payment to an employee’s annual salary or hourly rate in Job Data as appropriate. 

Automatic Processing- Institution Pay Period 09C:

Additional Pay Processing

To process the retroactive portion of the Recurring Increment Payment for eligible employees in the paycheck dated 08/08/2024, OSC will create an Additional Pay record for each eligible employee provided on CUNY’s Additional Pay roster (See Agency Actions - Roster of Eligible Employees) as follows:

Job Data Processing

To process the retroactive Job Data portion of the Recurring Increment Payment for eligible employees in the paycheck dated 08/08/2024, OSC will insert a row on the employee’s Job Data page as indicated on CUNY’s Job Data roster. The Action/Reason code Pay Rate Change/CRP (Recurring Increment Payment) will be used to incorporate CRP payments into employee’s annual salary as appropriate. The Action/Reason code Pay Rate Change/CSL (Cor Sal) will be used to update any subsequent rows in an employee's payroll history.

Note: At the time of processing the retroactive portion of the Recurring Increment Payment in Institution Pay Period 09C, the Effective Date(s) of the CRP row(s) inserted into Additional Pay and/or Job Data will be retroactive. The OSC Automatic Retroactive Processing section below contains information on OSC’s processing of retroactive adjustments in paychecks dated 08/08/2024.

Agency Actions- Roster of Eligible Employees:

CUNY provided OSC with a Job Data roster and an Additional Pay roster of employees who are entitled to the Recurring Increment Payment.

The Job Data roster contained the following fields:

• Emplid
• Empl Rcd
• Effdt
• Jobcode
• New Action (PAY)
• New Action Reason (CRP)
• New Comprate

The Additional Pay roster contained the following fields:

• Emplid
• Empl Rcd
• Effective Date
• End Date
• NY OT Effective Date
• OTH PAY- Derived biweekly amount of the NY Annual Earns Amount
• Earn Code = CRP
• Goal Amount = 0
• Goal Balance = 0
• NY Annual Earns
• Prorate Addl Pay = N

OSC Actions - Automatic Retroactive Processing:

OSC will automatically calculate retroactive adjustments for regular earnings and Time Entry earnings that are calculated by the system based on annual salary or that include Earnings Code CRP (Recurring Increment Payment) such as OT at 1.5 CUNY 40 hr (Earnings Code OTE) and OT – Hourly/Biweekly (Earnings Code OTK), resulting from payment of the Recurring Increment Payment.

If an employee is eligible for a retroactive increase and has been paid by multiple agencies in the same Employee Record Number since the effective date of the increase, all retroactive adjustments will be paid in the most current agency within that record number. If an employee has been paid in multiple record numbers, each record number will be evaluated separately, and retroactive payments will be processed in the record number in which the increase occurred.

Agency Actions - Retroactive Processing

Reporting Retroactive Adjustments

Time Entry earnings codes that are submitted with an amount will not be adjusted automatically. Therefore, beginning in Institution Pay Period 10C, agencies must report the adjustment amount for earnings codes such as OT Override (Earnings Code OTO) and Regular Pay Override (Earnings Code RGO).

Correcting an Automatic Retroactive Adjustment

When certain conditions exist in an employee’s record, the automatic retroactive adjustment may be incorrect. Therefore, the agency is responsible for identifying employees who meet the following conditions and, if necessary, submitting the necessary adjustment:

• If an employee has a check returned or exchanged on an AC-230 for dates on or after the effective date of the payment, the payroll system does not consider the AC-230 when calculating the automatic retroactive adjustment.
• If earnings were previously reported using Earnings Code RGS and a date range that exceeded the number of days reported, the system will calculate the adjustment of earnings based on the number of workdays within the range.
• Adjustments for earnings that are calculated automatically, such as OT at 1.5 CUNY 40 hr (Earnings Code OTE), will be calculated incorrectly if the dates previously reported as a single entry on the Time Entry page overlap the effective date of the payment. The system will calculate an adjustment for all earnings reported in a single entry based on the salary in effect on the Earnings End Date.
• For employees who had a change reported on the Job Data page, since the effective date of the payment and the action resulted in an overpayment of earnings, the automatic negative retroactive adjustment may not have been processed because the overpayment was either not recoverable or was recovered using an overpayment earnings code or an AC-230. In this case, the negative retroactive adjustment may be re-generated when the payment is processed. OSC will turn off (not process) the automatic negative adjustment for these employees since in most cases these overpayments were either not recoverable or recovered using another method.

If an overpayment of earnings is identified after the automatic payment is processed but before the paycheck is received by the employee, the employee must be notified of the overpayment and the adjustment that will be reported in a subsequent pay period.

Submitting an Adjustment

When an adjustment is needed for COVID-19 related overtime such as Covid-19 OT Override (Earnings Code CVO), Earnings Code ARC (Adjust Retro Raise for C19 OT) must be used to process the adjustment. When an adjustment is needed for non-COVID-19 related overtime such as OT Override (Earnings Code OTO), Earnings Code ARO (Adj Retro Raise for OT and RCL) must be used to process the adjustment. Please refer to Payroll Bulletin No. 1893 Reporting Adjustment to Overtime for more information. Agencies must continue to use Earnings Code AJR (Adjust Raise) for all other override Time Entry Earnings Codes requiring a manual adjustment as a result of a retro salary increase.

To process a retroactive adjustment or correct an automatic retroactive adjustment, agencies must submit the following information on the Time Entry page or the Time Entry Interface (NPAY502) using the Earnings Code AJR, ARC, or ARO:

Agency Actions- Newly Eligible Employees

Beginning in Institution Pay Period 10C, agencies must submit transactions to process the Recurring Increment Payment for employees who were not originally provided on CUNY’s roster but have subsequently met the eligibility requirements for the Recurring Increment Payment.

Submitting Additional Pay Payment for Full-Time Annual Employees

To process the Recurring Increment Payment in Additional Pay for full-time annual employees who were eligible but not included on CUNY’s rosters or become eligible subsequent to OSC’s retroactive processing of employees in Institution Pay Period 09C, agencies must submit the following information on the Additional Pay page:

Submitting Salary Increase for Full-Time Annual Employees

After receiving the payment in Additional Pay for two years, the Recurring Increment Payment becomes pensionable and must be included in base salary for full-time annual    employees by submitting a Pay Rate Change on the Job Action Requests page using a Reason Code of CRP (Recurring Increment Payment) and the applicable Effective Date, which is two years after the Recurring increment Payment started in Additional Pay.

Submitting Rate Increase for Hourly Employees

To process the Recurring Increment Payment in Job Data for hourly employees who become eligible subsequent to OSC’s retroactive processing of employees in Institution 09C, agencies must submit a Pay Rate Change on the Job Action Requests page using a Reason Code of CRP (Recurring Increment Payment) and the applicable Effective Date, which is  the payment Effective Date referenced in the Eligibility Criteria section or quarterly begin date subsequent to employee attaining required years of service.

General Deductions:

All general deductions for employees whose Payroll Status is Terminated, Retired, or Deceased will be automatically canceled by OSC with the exception of percentage based dues and the following:

Tax Information:

These monies are taxable income subject to all employment taxes and income taxes, will be included in the employee’s taxable gross, and reported on the employee’s Form W-2.

The adjustments (Earnings Codes AJR, ARC and ARO) and retroactive payments (Earnings Codes RXX) are supplemental taxable income and will be included in the employee’s taxable gross subject to all employment and income taxes.

Federal, State, and New York City income tax withholding will be calculated using the Aggregate method. Yonkers income tax withholding will be calculated using the Flat Rate method (1.95975% for Yonkers residents and 0.50% for Yonkers non-residents). 

Special Wage Payments for Individuals Who Filed for Retirement Social Security Benefits:

Per Internal Revenue Service Publication 957, OSC will be reporting retro payments made to individuals who have filed for Social Security benefits to the Social Security Administration (SSA).

As PayServ does not include this information, OSC will be mailing a Request for Special Wage Payment Report to inactive individuals who are 62 or older in the calendar year and to active employees with the New York Retiree Indicator checked in Modify a Person who receive the retroactive payment. Recipients of this mailing will be asked to fill out the request and return it to OSC for inclusion on the Special Wage Payment report to SSA. This report will be submitted to SSA after the close of the 2024 tax year. 

It is important that agencies ensure the New York Retiree Indicator box is checked for rehired retirees. Please see Payroll Bulletin No. 1728 – New York Retiree Indicator for further details on the New York Retiree Indicator box.

Payroll Register and Employee’s Paycheck/Advice:

All retroactive adjustments will be displayed on the Payroll Register using the appropriate Earnings Code and the amount paid and will be displayed on the employee’s paycheck stub or direct deposit advice using the appropriate Earnings Description and the amount paid unless the number of earnings codes exceeds 13. Agencies should utilize Locked Query LQ_PCD_PAYCHECK_EARNINGS_BY_ID to identify a complete list of regular earnings and retroactive adjustments if there are more than 13 earnings codes.

Undeliverable Checks:

When a valid payroll check is undeliverable due to the agency’s inability to locate the employee, the agency should follow the Agency Actions identified in Payroll Bulletin No. 1786 Non-Negotiated and/or Undeliverable New York State Payroll Checks.

Checks issued to eligible employees who are now deceased should be submitted as a Stop Payment Request with a reason of Exchange in PayServ. The Report of Check Exchange (AC 1476-P), Next of Kin Affidavit (AC 934-P), and original death certificate should be submitted to the Payroll Reversal and Exchange mailbox at the same time as the Stop Payment Request. If a Next of Kin Affidavit has been previously submitted for a deceased employee’s payroll check, OSC will accept a photocopy of this form along with a new Report of Check Exchange.

Questions:

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

Questions regarding general deductions may be directed to the Payroll Deduction mailbox.

Questions regarding taxes may be directed to the Tax and Compliance mailbox.