Pay Policies

Use the Pay Policies wizard to add new preconfigured policies and add specific rules and qualifiers. The wizard includes the most used configuration elements and provides a clear understanding of the implications of each setting.

About pay policies

Pay policies apply pay rules and qualifiers to employees' worked time so that their gross pay is paid according to each organization's policies and business needs. Each rule controls an aspect of an organization's pay policy, such as when and how daily, weekly, and holiday overtime is paid, or what shift premiums employees are eligible to earn. You can configure rules to make sure that an organization is compliant with local, state, and federal labor legislation.

Qualifiers limit when the rule can impact an organization's payroll. For example, if you configured a daily overtime rule that should only apply to weekends, you would need to configure a qualifier to limit the rule to weekends. If you don’t add qualifiers to your rules, Activate applies the rules to every employee assigned to the payroll policy.

Each rule can have several different configurations, or versions of it. For example, you can configure the daily overtime to pay full-time employees at time and a half when they work longer than 9 hours a day, but part-time employees earn time and a half when they work longer than 8 hours a day. Then, configure the weekly overtime rule so that full-time employees earn weekly overtime for working more than 44 hours a week and part-time employees for working more than 40 hours a week.

A pay policy groups the appropriate instances of these rules together so they can be applied to the same group of employees. Continuing the example, you would create a pay policy for full-time employees and a pay policy for part-time employees. Each policy would contain the full-time or part-time configuration of the overtime rules.

Before you begin

Employees' work locations must be loaded.

Activate installs preconfigured pay policies based on employee work locations during the initial load of employee data in Getting Started.

Key concepts

Available pay policies

All pay policies are configured in Activate but not yet installed in Dayforce.

Installed pay policies

All of the pay policies created in Activate or created directly in Dayforce.

After completing Getting started, Activate installs the pay policies based on employee work locations. A pay policy for each USA state or each Canadian province is installed and assigned based on the states/provinces in each employee's address record. Because of the variability of other countries' labor laws, Activate installs a blank pay policy during Getting Started to be completed later in the implementation.

Tasks

To add new pay policies:

To add rules to available pay policies:

To add qualifiers to available pay policy rules:

To install pay policies:

To copy pay policies:

To delete pay policies:

To edit pay policy rules:

To copy pay policy rules:

To delete pay policy rules:

To edit pay policy rule qualifiers:

To copy the pay policy rule qualifiers:

To delete pay policy rule qualifiers:

Results

Activate installs all of the configured pay policies in Dayforce.

Updates in Dayforce

This wizard updates the Pay Policy page in Dayforce (Pay Setup > Pay Policy).

Australian pay policies

If you installed any of the Australian pay policy templates, Activate installs the data on the Pay Policy page in Dayforce as follows:

How Activate installs the data

Data from this Pay Policy Template...	Shows on this page in Dayforce...
Australian Aged Care Award	Employee Profile > Payroll > Tax Definitions > AUS - Aged Care Award tab
Australian Fitness Industry Award	Employee Profile > Payroll > Tax Definitions > AUS - Fitness Industry Award 2020 tab
Australian Clerks Private Sector	Employee Profile > Payroll > Tax Definitions > AUS - Clerks Private Sector Award tab
Australian Fast Food Industry	Employee Profile > Payroll > Tax Definitions > AUS - Fast Food Industry Award 2020 tab
Australian Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services	Employee Profile > Payroll > Tax Definitions > AUS - Social Community, Home Care Award tab

Note: XRefCodes for pay categories and pay codes associated with Australian awards are preceded with “AUS_.”

Next steps

• The installed pay policies are only a starting point. Review the Activate Configuration Compliance Guide for additional information.
• Review the configuration of the pay policies installed by Activate with the customer. If you need to add any nonstandard pay rules to the installed pay policies or configure any new pay policies, go to Dayforce Pay Setup > Pay Policy and make the necessary changes.
• Use the Mass Configuration Changes wizard in Activate to assign installed Pay Policies to employees.
• In Dayforce, configure split pay at day start for employees who work past 12 am, respect-specific job rates worked, and/or allow lower job rates to override base rates, if required.
• After navigating back to Activate Central, two links show in the Pay Policies section:
  • Click View Installed Dayforce Elements to view the Dayforce elements installed in the Pay Policies wizard. This report is available even if you run the wizard again.
  • Click View Activate Selections to download an Excel file containing every policy added using Activate in the Pay Policies wizard, including answers to any of the rules added or edited in the selected policy. This report stays available even if you run the wizard again. See Activate Selections Reports for more information about this report.

Commonly encountered issues

1. Activate automatically installs best practice State or Province Pay Policies during Getting Started, based on the work locations of employees included in the data load.

   Virtual employees who work from their home office don’t have a work location in the Activate Generated Org. Therefore, Activate can’t install the corresponding State or Province Pay Policy for their home office location. For employees who must be paid based on their home state or province, you might need to configure the required pay policies in the Pay Policies wizard and then use the Mass Configuration Changes wizard to assign them to the virtual employees.

2. Don’t delete any extra or unneeded pay policies until just before Go Live, after the use of Activate is complete. Many states in the US have duplicate pay policy rules, so the pay policies are often combined for ease of configuration, future maintenance, or administration. However, if the project team removes or deletes the unused pay policy in Activate, it will cause errors in loading data template files or mass assignments because Activate expects the pay policies to exist.

Questions

Shift Premium Rule

Name your pay policy rule

A descriptive name for the pay policy rule that you’re adding.

In your own words, describe your pay policy rule

A description of the rule. Make the description detailed enough to identify the major policy rules, such as eligibility, how the rule is paid, and the rate. This field expands so that you can enter as much text as needed to describe the rule adequately.

What time of day do employees qualify for the shift premium?

The time of day when the premium eligibility begins.

What time of day do employees no longer qualify for the shift premium?

The time of day when the premium eligibility ends.

How is the shift premium paid?

• Incremental: Pay the shift premium as a dollar amount increment to hourly pay.
• Percentage Based: Pay the shift premium as a percentage of the employee's rate of pay.

What is the shift premium rate? ($)

The dollar amount increment to hourly pay.

What is the shift premium payment as a percentage of the employee rate? (%)

The percentage of the employee's rate of pay to add as the premium.

Guarantee Rule

Name your pay policy rule

A descriptive name for the pay policy rule that you’re adding.

In your own words, describe your pay policy rule

A description of the rule. Make the description detailed enough to identify the major policy rules, such as eligibility, how the rule is paid, and the rate. This field expands so that you can enter as much text as needed to describe the rule adequately.

How many minutes are employees guaranteed to be paid regardless of how much they work?

The amount of time (in minutes) guaranteed pay to the employee.

Holiday Rule

Name your pay policy rule

A descriptive name for the pay policy rule that you’re adding.

In your own words, describe your pay policy rule

A description of the rule. Make the description detailed enough to identify the major policy rules, such as eligibility, how the rule is paid, and the rate. This field expands so that you can enter as much text as needed to describe the rule adequately.

How many premium hours are paid to employees on holidays?

The number of premium hours to pay the employee when the employee works on a holiday.

If left blank, the rule pays the number of hours specified in the Average Daily Hours field on the employee's record in People (My HR).

What overtime rate applies when employees work on the holiday?

The overtime rate to apply when an employee works on a holiday. For example, if an employee normally earns $10/hour and “1.5x” is selected, holiday overtime will be paid at a rate of $15/hour.

Weekly Overtime Rule

Name your pay policy rule

A descriptive name for the pay policy rule that you’re adding.

In your own words, describe your pay policy rule

A description of the rule. Make the description detailed enough to identify the major policy rules, such as eligibility, how the rule is paid, and the rate. This field expands so that you can enter as much text as needed to describe the rule adequately.

How many minutes does an employee need to work in order to be eligible for weekly overtime?

The number of minutes (per week) an employee is required to work to be eligible for weekly overtime.

What overtime rate applies when the employees reach the overtime threshold?

The overtime rate to apply when an employee reaches the weekly threshold for overtime. For example, if an employee normally earns $10/hour and “1.5x” is selected, the holiday overtime will be paid at a rate of $15/hour.

Daily Overtime Rule

Name your pay policy rule

A descriptive name for the pay policy rule that you’re adding.

In your own words, describe your pay policy rule

A description of the rule. Make the description detailed enough to identify the major policy rules, such as eligibility, how the rule is paid, and the rate. This field expands so that you can enter as much text as needed to describe the rule adequately.

How many minutes must an employee work in a day before they start earning daily overtime?

The number of minutes (per day) an employee is required to work to be eligible for daily overtime.

What overtime rate applies when the employees reach the overtime threshold?

The overtime rate to apply when an employee reaches the daily threshold for overtime. For example, if an employee normally earns $10/hour and “1.5x” is selected, the holiday overtime will be paid at a rate of $15/hour.

Employee Qualifier

Name your policy rule qualifier

A descriptive name for the pay policy rule qualifier that you’re adding.

In your own words, describe your policy rule qualifier

A description of the rule qualifier. The description should be detailed enough to identify the major qualifier rules, such as the included pay types and pay classes. This field expands so you can enter as much text as needed to describe the qualifier adequately.

Which Pay Class(es) must be assigned to the employee for this rule to appy?

The pay classes the rule will be applied to. Select all that apply.

Which Pay Type(s) must be assigned to the employee for this rule to apply?

The pay types to apply the rule to. Select all that apply.

Which Employment Status(es) must be assigned to the employee for this rule to apply?

The employment statuses to apply the rule to. Select all that apply.

Which Job must be assigned to the employee for this rule to apply?

The jobs to apply the rule to. To remove a job from the included list, click the “x” next to the job title.

Which Shift Rotations Employees must be assigned for the rule to run?

The shifts to apply the rule to. Select all that apply.

How many days must pass after the employee's hire date for this rule to apply?

The number of days from the hired date when to apply the rule.

Holiday Qualifier

Name your policy rule qualifier

A descriptive name for the pay policy rule qualifier that you’re adding.

In your own words, describe your policy rule qualifier

A description of the rule qualifier. The description should be detailed enough to identify the major qualifier rules, such as the included pay types and pay classes. This field expands so you can enter as much text as needed to describe the qualifier adequately.

Which Holiday Group(s) must be assigned to the employee for this rule to apply?

The holiday groups to apply the rule to. Select all that apply.

Worked Next Shift Qualifier

Name your policy rule qualifier

A descriptive name for the pay policy rule qualifier that you’re adding.

In your own words, describe your policy rule qualifier

A description of the rule qualifier. The description should be detailed enough to identify the major qualifier rules, such as the included pay types and pay classes. This field expands so you can enter as much text as needed to describe the qualifier adequately.

How many days should the qualifier look forward to determine the employee’s next scheduled shift and whether the employee worked that shift for this rule to apply?

A specified number of days in the future to use to determine the next scheduled shift and if the shift was worked to apply the rule to.

Note: If the employee didn’t have a scheduled shift within the specified number of days of the current shift, the qualifier passes and the associated rule is applied to the current shift.

If the employee worked on an unscheduled day, should the qualifier consider that day as a worked shift?

• Yes: Working on an unscheduled day counts as a worked shift and the rule should apply.
• No: Working on an unscheduled day doesn’t count as a worked shift and the rule shouldn’t apply.

Are pay adjustments entered on the employee’s timesheet considered worked shifts?

For example, vacation time is often entered on the timesheet as a pay adjustment.

• Yes: Adjustments entered on an employee's timesheet count as a worked shift.
• No: Adjustments entered on an employee's timesheet don’t count as a work shift.

Worked Minutes Qualifier

Name your policy rule qualifier

A descriptive name for the pay policy rule qualifier that you’re adding.

In your own words, describe your policy rule qualifier

A description of the rule qualifier. The description should be detailed enough to identify the major qualifier rules, such as the included pay types and pay classes. This field expands so you can enter as much text as needed to describe the qualifier adequately.

How many minutes must an employee work for this rule to apply?

A threshold number of worked minutes for the rule to apply.

Should the rule fire if the employee works less than or greater than the threshold defined above?

• Less Than: If the employee works less than the threshold number of hours, apply the rule.
• Greater Than: If the employee works more than the threshold number of hours, apply the rule.

How far back, in days, should the qualifier look when totaling the minutes worked?

Leave this field blank for the qualifier to consider only the current day's worked minutes. Or, you can enter several days for the qualifier to examine to determine how much time has been worked in the past.

The number of days in the past to consider when totaling the minutes worked for the rule to apply.

Should the current day's worked time be included in the total worked minutes?

• Yes: When determining if the rule should apply, include the current day's worked time in the total worked minutes.
• No: When determining if the rule should apply, don’t include the current day's worked time in the total worked minutes.

Do pay premiums count towards the work minutes threshold?

Premiums can be paid to employees on days they don’t actually work, such as holiday premiums for statutory holidays.

• Yes: When determining if the rule should apply, include pay premiums in the total worked minutes.
• No: When determining if the rule should apply, don’t include pay premiums in the total worked minutes.

Worked Previous Shift Qualifier

Name your policy rule qualifier

A descriptive name for the pay policy rule qualifier that you’re adding.

In your own words, describe your policy rule qualifier

A description of the rule qualifier. The description should be detailed enough to identify the major qualifier rules, such as the included pay types and pay classes. This field expands so you can enter as much text as needed to describe the qualifier adequately.

How many days should the qualifier look back to determine the employee’s last scheduled shift and whether the employee worked that shift for this rule to apply?

A specified number of days in the past to be used to determine the last scheduled shift and if the shift was worked to apply the rule to.

Note: If the employee didn’t have a scheduled shift within the specified number of days of the current shift, the qualifier passes and Activate applies the associated rule to the current shift.

If the employee worked on an unscheduled day, should the qualifier consider that day as a worked shift?

• Yes: Working on an unscheduled day counts as a worked shift and the rule should apply.
• No: Working on an unscheduled day doesn’t count as a worked shift and the rule shouldn’t apply.

Are pay adjustments entered on the employee’s timesheet considered worked shifts?

For example, Vacation time is often entered as a pay adjustment on the timesheet.

• Yes: Adjustments entered on an employee's timesheet count as a worked shift.
• No: Adjustments entered on an employee's timesheet don’t count as a worked shift.

Day Qualifier

Name your policy rule qualifier

A descriptive name for the pay policy rule qualifier that you’re adding.

In your own words, describe your policy rule qualifier

A description of the rule qualifier. The description should be detailed enough to identify the major qualifier rules, such as the included pay types and pay classes. This field expands so you can enter as much text as needed to describe the qualifier adequately.

On which days of the week must the associated rule run?

The days of the week when the rule should be run. Select all that apply.

Pay Policy Rules

Shift Premium Rule

Pays a premium for working during a specific period of time.

When Activate installs the rule for the policy into Dayforce, the following defaulted configuration elements are applied:

• Shift premiums are awarded for worked time categorized as Regular or Training.
• Shift premiums are categorized with pay code-category “Prem-ShiftPrem.”
• Shift premiums are paid separately rather than blended into the rate tied to the worked time.
• For USA policies, if the FLSA Overtime rule exists in the policy, Shift Premiums are included in the calculation of the average rate.
• The Shift Premium rule is sequenced to execute before any overtime rules in the pay policy.

Guarantee Rule

Note: A Guarantee Rule can’t be added to a compliant pay policy if the compliant policy already contains a Guarantee Rule.

Guarantees a minimum hours payment if an employee works less than that minimum hours.

When Activate installs the rule for the policy in Dayforce, the following defaulted configuration elements are applied:

• The Guarantee Rule is categorized with the pay code-category “Guar-Prem.”
• The guarantee is awarded when worked time is: categorized as Regular, Training, OT 1.5, or OT Daily is less than the minimum set.
• “Meals” aren’t considered to be time worked.
• The guaranteed amount is calculated as the difference between the worked time and the minimum value set multiplied by the employee’s current base rate.
• The Guarantee Rule executes before any overtime rules in the pay policy.

Holiday Rule

Note: A Holiday Rule can’t be added to a compliant pay policy if the compliant policy already contains a Holiday Rule.

Pays a fixed premium on holidays and applies an overtime rate multiplier on any time worked on the holiday.

When Activate installs the rule for the policy in Dayforce, the following defaulted configuration elements are applied:

• The holiday premium is categorized with the pay code-category “HOL-PREM.”
• The holiday overtime rate is a multiple of the employee’s base rate.
• Time worked on the holiday is paid at the multiplier rate on the worked time rather than as a separate premium.
• Only worked time categorized as Regular or Training is eligible for holiday overtime.
• The Holiday rule is sequenced to execute before any Guarantee and overtime rules in the policy.

Weekly Overtime Rule

Note: A Weekly Overtime Rule can’t be added to a compliant pay policy if the compliant policy already contains a Weekly Overtime or FLSA Overtime Rule.

Pays at an overtime multiplier rate for any time worked beyond the weekly threshold.

When Activate installs the rule for the policy in Dayforce, the following defaulted configuration elements are applied:

• The Weekly Overtime Rate is a multiple of the employee’s base rate.
• Overtime is paid at the multiplier rate on the worked time instead of as a separate premium.
• Only worked time categorized as Regular or Training is eligible for overtime.
• The rule is sequenced to execute last.

Daily Overtime Rule

Note: A Daily Overtime Rule can’t be added to a compliant pay policy if the compliant policy already contains a Daily Overtime or FLSA Overtime Rule.

Pays at an overtime multiplier rate for any time worked beyond the daily threshold.

When Activate installs the rule for the policy in Dayforce, the following defaulted configuration elements are applied:

• The Daily Overtime Rate is a multiple of the employee’s base rate.
• Overtime is paid at the multiplier rate on the worked time instead of as a separate premium.
• Only worked time categorized as Regular or Training is eligible for overtime.
• The rule is sequenced to execute before any weekly overtime rules in the policy.

Pay Policy Qualifiers

Employee Qualifier

Makes sure that the attached rule applies only to employees assigned to a specific pay class, pay type, job, status, or shift rotation.

Holiday Qualifier

Makes sure that the attached rule applies only to holidays contained in the respective holiday groups assigned to employees.

Worked Next Shift Qualifier

Makes sure that the attached rule applies only to employees who worked their next scheduled shift with the option to count work on a nonscheduled day as a worked shift.

Worked Minutes Qualifier

Makes sure that the attached rule applies only to employees who worked:

• Less than or more than a threshold of worked minutes in total or
• Per day for a defined number of days in the past.

Worked Previous Shift Qualifier

(This is the Drop-down text)

Makes sure that the attached rule applies only to employees who worked their last scheduled shift with the option to count work on a nonscheduled day as a worked shift.

Day Qualifier

Makes sure that the attached rule applies only to specific days of the week.