Purpose

The purpose of this bulletin is to inform campuses of OSC’s automatic processing of the December 2021 minimum wage increases for hourly employees and provide instructions for payments not processed automatically, including increases for employees whose annual salary is below the annualized equivalent of the minimum wage for their work location.

Affected Employees

SUNY employees in hourly or annual positions who meet the eligibility criteria are affected.

Background

Chapter 54 of the Laws of 2016 increased the New York State minimum wage for employees in non-governmental positions. The Director of the Budget establishes the pay rate for State seasonal and other non-statutory positions paid using an hourly rate.

A memorandum dated 09/14/2016 from Nancy L. Zimpher, Chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY), authorizes the alignment of the minimum wage paid to hourly employees and student workers with the minimum wage levels approved as part of the 2016/17 enacted State budget.

In addition, eligible full or part time annual employees should receive at least the annualized equivalent of the minimum hourly rate associated with their position location (hourly rate x 2088 = annualized equivalent).

Effective Dates

The December 2021 minimum wage increase for hourly employees will be processed using the following effective dates and check dates:

Agencies should use the above effective dates for transactions processed manually.

Eligibility Criteria

Employees with a Pay Rate Code of HRY on or after the appropriate effective date and an hourly rate less than the amount provided on the chart below are eligible for the 2021 minimum wage increase:

*The increase to $15.00 for employees whose job location is within the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, or Westchester will not be automatically processed. Campuses must process these additional increases as appropriate (see Agency Actions).

Employees with a Pay Rate Code of ANN on or after the appropriate effective date, with a salary less than the annualized equivalent of the minimum hourly rate for their work location, are eligible to receive an increase to the appropriate annualized minimum.

OSC Actions

OSC will process the December 2021 minimum wage increase for hourly employees as follows:

If employees meet the eligibility criteria and have an Active, Leave with Pay, or Leave of Absence payroll status on the appropriate effective date, OSC will automatically insert a row on employees’ Job Data page using the appropriate effective date and Action/Reason code of Pay Rate Change/ MWH (Minimum Wage Hourly), and increase employees’ hourly rate to the new minimum hourly wage of $13.20.

Agency Actions

Beginning Pay Period 21, campuses must process the additional increase to $15.00 for hourly employees whose job location is within the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, or Westchester.

Campuses must submit a Pay Change on the Job Action Requests page using the Reason code MWH (Minimum Wage Hourly) and the appropriate effective date as indicated on the above chart.

Campuses must update all subsequent effective dated rows, provided the employee remains in an eligible position.

Campuses that use the New York State Electronic Personnel System (NYSTEP) for compensation adjustments must also enter these adjustments through NYSTEP if the rate frequency of the position is less than the appropriate amount indicated on the chart above. Further, campuses must ensure that employees’ job location are accurate in NYSTEP, especially for individuals w job location within the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, or Westchester.

Note: If an employee’s job location changes to a location with a different minimum wage in effect, the agency must update the employee’s rate to reflect the appropriate rate for the new location.

Agency Actions – Annual Employees

Campuses must submit a Pay Change on the Job Action Requests page using the Reason code MWS (Minimum Wage Salary) and the appropriate effective date as indicated on the above chart to increase the annual salary of eligible employees whose salary falls below the annualized equivalent of the minimum wage associated with their position location as follows:

Questions

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