Purpose

To explain the change in payment procedures for Judges in order to pay their statutory salary in twenty-six (26) approximately equal payments beginning in calendar year 2005.

Affected Employees

Judges in the Unified Court System who serve any time after January 1, 2005

Effective Date(s)

The new method will begin in the regular paycheck, dated January 12, 2005

Background

Based on an agreement between Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman and the Office of the State Comptroller, a new method for paying Judges was implemented in 2004. Beginning calendar year 2005, the total amount of regular earnings actually paid during the calendar year will equal the Judge’s full or prorated share of statutory salary, whichever is applicable.

New Procedures for Paying LEG Employees: Normal Processing

As a result of this agreement, effective calendar year 2005, the statutory salary will be paid in twenty-six (26) approximately equal payments over the twenty-six (26) pay periods occurring during calendar year 2005, and each year thereafter. The existing “check date” schedule will not be changed.

For calendar years that contain twenty-seven (27) pay periods, judges will not receive a payment in the 27th pay period (the last paycheck in December of the year). Twenty-seven (27) pay periods will occur next in 2013, and every eleven (11) years thereafter.

The amount of the first paycheck in each calendar year, regardless of the check date, will be a full biweekly salary. This will usually cause a situation in which the Judge will be prepaid by the number of days prior to January 1. This number of days will vary each year.

If a Judge separates from service before December 31, the Judge will be in an overpayment situation. In the year following the year that contains 27 pay periods (i.e. 2014), the first paycheck dated 1/15 will result in an underpayment of earnings. The judge will have served 15 calendar days but will receive payment for only 14 calendar days in the initial paycheck.

Note: If a Judge is removed during the year, UCS is responsible for recovering the amount of earnings overpaid, if the overpaid earnings cannot be recovered from the Judge’s final paycheck.

If biweekly salary rates must be prorated due to a mid-pay period change, the system will automatically calculate the prorated earnings using the following formula:

• Biweekly Salary Amount = Statutory Salary divided by 26
• Per Diem Rate = Biweekly Salary Amount divided by 14
• Amount due for current pay period = number of calendar day multiplied by the per diem amount for each salary rate earned in the pay period.

Increases or decreases in salary due to position change or transfer within judicial payrolls submitted on a retroactive basis will be automatically calculated using the above method. The adjustment of earnings due for the retroactive period will be processed as RRS.

Year-end adjustments will be processed to ensure all Judges receive their full or prorated share of their statutory salary for the calendar year.

Special Processing

OSC Processing to change the payment:

To ensure that the Judges’ statutory salary is paid in approximately twenty-six (26) equal payments, OSC will make the following changes:

• After the December 29, 2004 regular paycheck is processed, OSC will update all Active grade 570 CAL positions (filled and vacant) to reflect the LEG Pay Basis Code, effective December 30, 2004.
• OSC will update the job records of all Active employees to reflect the change in Pay Basis Code, effective December 30, 2004.

Agency Actions

• For all transactions that take effect on January 1, UCS must report the action on Job or Job Request effective the first day of the pay period that the first check is issued (i.e. 12/30/04 for calendar year 2005). The General Comments page must be used to report the actual effective date of the transaction. The use of the first day of the pay period as the effective date (December 30, 2004) ensures that Judges who separate on December 31,2004 do not receive the first regular paycheck (January 12, 2005). This also permits Judges who are being hired or have position changes at the beginning of a calendar year to be paid 1/26th of their statutory salary in the first paycheck of the calendar year (January 12, 2005).
• If a Judge has a change and the effective date is after the start of a new calendar year (January 1, 2005), UCS must use the actual date of the action being reported.
• If a hire or rehire is submitted on a retroactive basis, UCS must enter the Earnings Code RGS to pay the retroactive pay period and use the new biweekly or prorated calculation, if the effective date is other than the first day of the pay period.
• The reassign chart for 2005 must be calculated by comparing the difference in the daily rates of pay ((statutory salary divided by 26, then divided by 10).
• If a Judge separates during the year, UCS is responsible for recovering the amount of earnings overpaid, if the overpaid earnings cannot be recovered from the Judge’s final paycheck.

Exceptions

Judge Incurs a Salary Change after January 1

Salary Change as of the Beginning of the pay period: the Biweekly Earnings = Statutory Salary in effect divided by 26

Salary Change in the middle of the pay period: Prorated Biweekly Earnings as determined below:

Step 1: Determine the Total Amount Due in the pay period at the
Old Daily Rate
Old Statutory Salary divided by 26 Pay Periods =
Old Biweekly Amount
Old Biweekly Amount divided by 14 Calendar Days=
Old Daily Rate
Old Daily Rate times the Number of Calendar Days Served in that
Pay Period @ Old Daily Rate =
Total amount of earnings due in that pay period @ Old Daily Rate.

Step 2: Determine the Total Amount Due in the pay period at the
New Daily Rate
New Statutory Salary divided by 26 Pay Periods =
New Biweekly Amount
New Biweekly Amount divided by 14 Calendar Days =
New Daily Rate
New Daily Rate times the Number of Calendar Days Served in that
Pay Period @ New Daily Rate =
Total amount of earnings due in that pay period @ New Daily Rate.

Step 3: Determine the Total Amount of Earnings Due for the pay period
Total Amount Due @ Old Daily Rate Calculated in Step 1 + Total Amount Due @ New Daily Rate Calculated in Step 2 =
Total amount of earnings due for the pay period in which the salary change occurs.

Judge is Appointed after January 1 (the actual appointment date is used)

Appointment as of the Beginning of the pay period: Biweekly
Earnings = Statutory Salary in effect divided by 26

Appointment in the middle of the pay period:

• Statutory Salary divided by 26 = Biweekly Amount
• Biweekly Amount divided by 14 calendar days = Per Diem amount
• Per Diem amount times the number of days actually served in the pay period in which the Appointment occurs
• = amount of earnings due in first paycheck

Judge is Separated from judicial employment before the end of the calendar year (12/31)

UCS will be responsible for determining the amount to be paid in the Judge’s final judicial paycheck. If the total amount of regular earnings the Judge has already received in the calendar year (i.e. the total amount received prior to the pay period in which the separation transaction becomes effective) exceeds the Judge’s prorated statutory salary entitlement, UCS must determine the total amount of overpayment to be recovered from the Judge or, if applicable, from subsequent non-judicial earnings.

Step 1: Determine the Judge’s prorated statutory salary entitlement:

• Determine the number of calendar days served. If more than one salary rate is earned, determine the number of days served at each salary rate. A separate amount must be calculated for each salary rate.
• Divide the number of days at each salary rate by the number of days between January 1 and December 31, (365 or 366 for a leap year) andround to seven (7) places.
• Multiply the resulting percentage by the salary for that period and round to two (2) places.
• If more than one salary rate is applicable, add the results for each salary rate.

Step 2: Determine the total amount of regular judicial earnings already received in all paychecks prior to the pay period in which the removal transaction is being reported.

Step 3: Subtract the total amount of regular judicial earnings received as calculated in Step 2 from the total prorated amount of statutory salary entitlement as calculated in Step 1.

• If the difference results in positive earnings (i.e. salary entitlement exceeds amount of judicial earnings already received), the amount of the positive earnings must be processed in the pay period the removal transaction becomes effective as an RGO. Enter the calculation in General Comments and refer to that calculation in the comments in the Time Entry page.
• If the difference results in negative earnings (i.e. salary entitlement is less than the amount of judicial earnings already received), the Judge has been overpaid and will not receive judicial earnings in the pay period in which the removal transaction is reported. This overpayment must be recovered from the Judge or, if applicable, from subsequent non-judicial earnings. OSC will not process any system- calculated RGS in that pay period. The overpayment situation usually occurs if the number of prepaid days in the first paycheck of the calendar year is greater than the number of days due the employee in the last paycheck. Enter the calculation in General Comments and the method of recovery.

Note: The number of calendar days that will be prepaid will vary each year, ranging from one to twelve prepaid service days. However, in the year following the year that contains twenty-seven (27) pay periods (.i.e. 2014), the first paycheck dated 1/15 will result in an underpayment of earnings, as the Judge will have served 15 calendar days but will receive payment for only 14 calendar days in the initial paycheck. Therefore, in that year, if a Judge is separated from judicial employment prior to the end of the year, the Judge will receive an adjustment for the additional day of service, reduced by any overpayment. The next year in which this underpayment of earnings will occur is 2014.

Reporting Actions in Calendar Year 2005

Refer to the Attachment for information and procedures for “Reporting Actions in Calendar Year 2005.”

Questions

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