Purpose:

The purpose of this bulletin is to inform agencies of OSC’s automatic processing of the January 2025 Increments and provide instructions for submitting payments not processed automatically.

Affected Employees:

All employees in a position represented by Bargaining Units CB, T8, TC, PC 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:

The 2025 CUNY Increments are effective on 1/01/2025 and will be processed in the Institution Pay Period 20C paycheck dated 01/09/2025.

Control-D Report Available Prior to Processing:

The following Control-D report will be available for agency use on 12/12/2024. This grants agencies time to correct employees’ records, if necessary, prior to the automatic processing of the January 2025 Increments. The report will be sorted by agency code, then by the employee’s name in alphabetical order.

NHRP708 – Mass Increment Payment Exception Report

This report provides a preliminary listing of employees who appear ineligible to receive a January 2025 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, identifying 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.
• Missing Increment Code
• 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 1120 and the salary is not equal to the ‘last one-year step.’
  • If the increment code is 1118 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 20C:

REM and RRI Titles

Agencies must review employees in Additional Remuneration (REM) Titles (HEO/Assistant Admin – Job Code 016855 and 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 2025 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 01/01/2025.

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, 2025:

To allow for automatic processing, promotions for unclassified staff effective 01/01/2025 should not be submitted until Institution Pay Period 21C, paychecks dated 01/23/2025. Agencies must include the appropriate 2025 increment code on the Job Action Requests page.

OSC Actions:

OSC will process the January 2025 Increments and Increment Code Updates using the applicable Effective Date from the Effective Dates section for employees who meet the eligibility criteria as follows:

• Are in a grade 980 position; and 
• Have a Comp Rate 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 20C for processing information.

Increment Code 0101

If the employee’s salary in effect on 01/01/2025 is equal to one of the salary steps and is below 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 01/01/2025 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 1120

If the employee’s salary in effect on 01/01/2025 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 01/01/2025 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 1118

If the employee’s salary in effect on 01/01/2025 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 01/01/2025 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:

OSC will automatically insert a row on the employee’s Job Data page effective 01/01/2025 using the Action/Reason code of Data Change/CIC (Chg IncCd/, AnnDT/or FIS Sal) and update the following increment code:

Control-D Reports Available 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 2025 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 2025 Increment or Increment Code Update. Included in 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 21C-Payments Not Processed Automatically:

If an employee was eligible for a January 2025 Increment or Increment Code Update but was not processed automatically in Institution Pay Period 20C, 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/, AnnDt/,or FIS Sal) and the appropriate increment code effective 01/01/2025.

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 returned with a completed Next of Kin Affidavit (Form AC 934-P), original death certificate and a Report of Check Exchange (Form AC 1476-P). 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.

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 may be directed to the Director of University Payroll Systems and Operations.

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