Merit, Merit-exempt, and non-exempt P&S staff members report extra hours worked, regular hours not worked, holiday pay, other adjustments to pay, and excused absences with pay. This information is used to calculate additions and deductions to your monthly salary and to maintain a running record of sick leave, vacation, and comp time hours available to you.
Report your time online via Employee Self Service by clicking the Time & Pay tile and then Time Records. Biweekly time records should be submitted for supervisor approval by 5 pm Monday following the close of the biweekly pay period.
Adjustments computed from your biweekly time record can include payments for overtime, shift differentials, time without pay, etc. These types of time record pay adjustments will be paid according to the biweekly pay period schedule. This schedule can be found on the Payroll website.
If you need to make corrections after submitting a time record, look for Time Record Corrections in Employee Self Service. If you need assistance, contact your supervisor or HR unit representative.
Frequently Asked Questions - Pay Practice Changes
a) These changes will simplify our payroll processes by ensuring timely and more frequent payment of overtime and other time record adjustments for all non-exempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
b) By transitioning to a biweekly pay schedule for overtime and other adjustments, employees will receive more frequent payment for adjustments and have a clearer understanding of compensation.
c) Time record submission and approval must now be completed every two weeks after the end of the biweekly pay period.
d) All overtime and other time record pay adjustments that result in a positive payment will be paid every two weeks, and there will be more clarity of what is being compensated and when.
a) Non-exempt employees covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) will transition to a bi-weekly pay schedule for overtime and other time record adjustments. Employees will receive timely and more frequent payment for pay adjustments and have a clearer understanding of compensation.
b) The University of Iowa will implement this change starting on March 21, 2021.
a) Employees will continue to receive regular budgeted salary paid on a monthly basis.
b) The transition will not impact employee's regular budgeted salary, job titles, and responsibilities. Eligibility for premiums, differentials, and benefits is not changing.
Submitting Biweekly Time Records
Every Merit and non-exempt P&S staff member must complete and submit a time record every two week pay period.
No entries are required for regularly scheduled hours worked. Enter only those hours that require an adjustment to your usual salary and those regularly scheduled hours not worked.
Each entry must be coded with the proper number from the listing of paid leave codes or pay adjustments in order to properly categorize the hours entered.
Staff members paid from more than one account should enter vacation and sick leave usage on only one of the leave and pay adjustment records completed. Any pay adjustments or comp time should be tied to the correct account code or master file key (MFK) number.
Merit and non-exempt P&S staff members who are eligible will receive overtime compensation for hours in excess of forty in any workweek. The basic workweek is defined as 168 consecutive hours running from the first shift beginning on or after 12 a.m. (midnight) Sunday through the first shift beginning before 12 a.m. the following Saturday. As overtime is computed on the basis of a workweek, you may wish to complete a work record first and then enter the proper information on the electronic biweekly time record in Employee Self Service.
If you have questions about the proper computation of overtime pay or what is properly classified as an absence without pay, contact your supervisor or HR unit rep.
Make all entries in hours or tenths of an hour using the following schedule:
06 minutes = .1
12 minutes = .2
18 minutes = .3
24 minutes = .4
30 minutes = .5
36 minutes = .6
42 minutes = .7
48 minutes = .8
54 minutes = .9
If the time worked or leave taken doesn't exactly equal a tenth of an hour, round to the nearest tenth of an hour.
You can elect to have sick leave transferred to vacation when submitting your time record. If you check the “every month possible” box, your sick leave will be transferred to vacation every applicable month until the election is cancelled (no transfers will take place for months during which you use sick leave). Transfers are made on a 3-to-1 hour ratio—for example, 12 hours of sick leave converts to 4 hours of vacation (prorated for part-time employees).
a) Supervisors will be required to approve time records on a biweekly basis with a shorter turnaround time.
b) For example, a non-exempt employee submits a biweekly time record to the supervisor for approval after the end of a biweekly period on Monday. The supervisor should review and approve the time record on Tuesday for processing into biweekly payroll.
a) Time record submission and approval must now be completed every two weeks after the end of the biweekly pay period. Employees need to submit a time record for every two week pay period even if there are no time entries.
b) Exempt employees will continue to submit their time records on a monthly basis.
No, employees will only receive a biweekly paycheck for overtime, shift differential, or other types of time record pay adjustments. Employees will continue to receive their regular budgeted salary on a monthly paycheck.
Taxes / Deductions / Direct Deposit
a) Federal and State of Iowa tax withholdings for biweekly payments will be at the supplemental withholding rates of 22% federal and 5.7% Iowa.
b) The University of Iowa will continue to utilize the IRS and Iowa Department of Revenue graduated withholding tables to calculate monthly federal and state payroll tax withholding based on an employee’s W-4 form elections for regular monthly payroll.
c) The impact to overall tax withholding will vary depending on the employee’s individual taxable income and W-4 form withholding elections. As always, this is an opportunity for staff to review their W-4 withholding for their monthly payments in order to accommodate any increase or decrease in their withholding that they may wish to take advantage of.
a) Regular deductions will continue to be withheld from monthly paychecks.
b) Retirement deductions will follow plan requirements - IPERS deductions apply to salary and adjustments, TIAA is strictly salary and undertime. While both TIAA and IPERS will be reviewed during both biweekly and monthly payroll processes, only IPERS will be impacted by the new pay practice for additional pay adjustments.
c) Child support deductions in arrears will be deducted from biweekly paychecks.
d) Wage garnishments will follow the garnishment order and may be applied to biweekly paychecks, when appropriate.
100% of the biweekly paychecks will be deposited into the employee’s balance account. If an employee has multiple direct deposit accounts, the balance account is the account that receives all remaining funds after the first and second accounts have been funded.
Paychecks
Pay adjustment entries from the time record that result in additional positive pay will be paid on the biweekly pay date following the end of the biweekly pay period. Pay adjustments may include time record entries such as overtime, shift differential, standby/on call, for example.
The first biweekly pay period for monthly non-exempt employees will be 03/21/2021 - 04/03/2021. The pay date for this pay period will be 04/13/2021 for time records that have been submitted by the employee and approved timely by the supervisor.
The 04/13/21 paycheck will contain any positive time record pay adjustments from the entire month of March. With the transition to biweekly payments for pay adjustments, any time record entries resulting in additional positive pay for 03/01/21 – 03/20/21 will be included with the biweekly pay period 03/21/21- 04/03/21. This will be a one-time occurrence and future payments will only include adjustments submitted during the biweekly pay period.
An adjustment check will not be created. The negative amount will be included on their next net positive paycheck. The pay will only pay biweekly if the time record adjustment entries are a net positive total for that particular pay period.
No. For compliance and consistency, we are unable to accommodate this request.
They will receive two separate payments. One for their regular biweekly appointment and the other for their monthly adjustments paid biweekly.
The payout will process with the next biweekly pay cycle once the request is submitted and approved on the appropriate time record.
There may be a delay in the Vacation & Sick Leave report in Employee Self-Service since Regular and Holiday Comp Time balances are updated one month in arrears. Vacation/sick leave will continue to process and update with monthly payroll.
Sick to Vacation Election
a) The sick to vacation transfer election will be effective in the month of the last day of the biweekly pay period when the request is made on the employee time record.
b) For example, if a sick transfer election for the 03/21/21 - 04/03/21 biweekly period is selected, the sick transfer to vacation option would apply to the month of April.
a) The most recent sick to vacation transfer election will be used.
b) The sick transfer to vacation election will be effective in the month of the last day of the biweekly pay period when the request is made on the employee time record.
Time & Attendance (Employee Self Service)
The monthly time record for impacted employees will be for the date range March 1 - March 20. Those time records should be submitted no later than April 5th and have supervisor approval by April 6th.
No, time records will be completed and submitted by employees on a biweekly basis for approval by the supervisor.
The calendar view in Time & Attendance will remain as a monthly view for all employees. The primary difference is that there will be a green dot every other Saturday to indicate the end of the biweekly pay period.
Yes, an email notification will be sent to employees that have not yet submitted their biweekly time record beginning the Monday following the end of the biweekly pay period.
Yes, an HR Report will be available for departmental reps to review unsubmitted time records for monthly non-exempt staff, reporting on a biweekly basis. The report will be located under Time & Attendance System reports.
a) To ensure timely processing and approval of employee time records, best practice is for the supervisor to set their out of office delegate within Universal Workflow. Departmental/Workflow Admins are able to set these if it is not done prior to the supervisor’s absence starting.
b) Employees also have the option to choose a different supervisor in Time & Attendance prior to submitting a time record. If the regular supervisor will not be available to approve, an alternate supervisor can be selected.
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) - Exempt vs Non-Exempt
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is the federal wage and hour law administered by the US Department of Labor. The FLSA establishes minimum wage and overtime pay. It applies to all major employers in the United States.
Exempt employees are excluded from the overtime provisions of the FLSA. Exempt employees are paid on a salaried basis and must meet both a salary threshold and a duties test to be considered exempt. Exempt employees remain eligible for additional supplemental pay practices.
Non-exempt employees are subject to the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and are eligible to earn overtime for all hours worked in excess of forty (40) in a work week. Non-exempt employees must be paid for all hours worked.