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PAYROLL

In a company, payroll is the sum of all financial records of salaries, wages, bonuses and deductions.

Paycheck

A paycheck, is traditionally a paper document issued by an employer to payan employee for services rendered. In recent times, the physical paycheck has been increasingly replaced by electronic direct deposit to bank accounts.

In most countries with a developed wire transfer system, using a physical check for paying wages and salaries has been uncommon for the past several decades. However, vocabulary referring to the figurative “paycheck” does exist in some languages, like German (Gehaltsscheck), partially due to the influence of US popular media, but this commonly refers to a payslip or stub rather than an actual check. Some company payrolls have eliminated both the paper check and stub, in which case an electronic image of the stub is available on an Internet website.

Payroll taxes

Federal/national, state/provincial, and/or local agencies require employers to perform various payroll functions,^[1] such as withholding amounts from employees’ compensation to cover income tax, Social Security, and Medicare.

Payroll taxes are levied by government agencies on employees’ wages, tips, and other compensation. The amounts withheld by employers from employees’ pay for federal income, social security, and Medicare taxes are considered to be trust-fund taxes, because the money is held in a special trust fund for the U.S. government. Amounts withheld for state and local income taxes are held in trust for the state and local governments.

Pay slip

A pay stub, paystub, pay slip, pay advice, or sometimes paycheck stub, is a document an employee receives either as a notice that the direct deposit transaction has gone through, or as part of their paycheck. It will typically detail the gross income and all taxes and any other deductions such asretirement plan contributions, insurances, garnishments, or charitable contributions taken out of the gross amount to arrive at the final net amount of the pay, also including the year to date totals in some circumstances.

Payroll card

The payroll card account may be held as a single account in the employer’s name. In that case, the account holds the payroll funds for all employees using the payroll card system. Some payroll card programs establish a separate account for each employee, but others do not.For employees that, for one reason or another, do not have access to a bank account (bad check history, not in close proximity to bank, etc), there is a solution, offered by most major Payroll Service Providers. Instead of an employee receiving a check, and paying up to 5-10% to cash the check, the employee can have the direct deposit loaded onto a debit card. In this, a company can save money on printing checks, not buy the expensive check stock, and not having to worry about check fraud, due to a check being lost or stolen. A payroll card is a plastic card allowing an employee to access their pay by using a debit card. A payroll card can be more convenient than using a check casher, because it can be used at participating automatic teller machines to withdraw cash, or in retail environments to make purchases. Some payroll cards are cheaper than payday loans available from retail check cashing stores, but others are not. Most payroll cards will charge a fee if used at an ATM more than once per pay period.

Many payroll cards are individually owned dda (demand deposit accounts) that are owned by the employee. These cards are more flexible, allowing the employee to use the card for paying bills, and the accounts are portable. Most payroll card accounts are FDIC-insured, but some are not.

Payroll Frequencies

Companies typically generate their payrolls on regular intervals, for the benefit of regular income to their employees. The regularity of the intervals, though, varies from company to company, and sometimes between job grades within a given company. Common payroll frequencies include: daily, weekly, bi-weekly (once every two weeks), semi-monthly (twice per month), and to somewhat of a lesser extent, monthly. Less common payroll frequencies include: 4-weekly (13 times per year), bi-monthly (once every two months), quarterly (once every 13 weeks), semi-annually (twice per year), and annually.

Payroll Professionals

In Canada Payroll Professionals are Certified by the Canadian Payroll Association. They are qualified as either ‘Payroll Compliance Practitioners (PCP)‘ or as ‘Certified Payroll Managers(CPM)’.

In the United States Payroll Professionals are Certified by the American Payroll Association. They are designated as Fundamental Payroll Certification (FPC) or Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) after passing the appropriate certification exam.

Upon completion of the required course material and with continuing education and membership fees the person is then entitled to the post-nominal letters associated with their current level of accomplishment.

In the United Kingdom, payroll professionals are represented by the Institute of Payroll Professionals.[1]

Warrants

Payroll warrants look like checks and clear through the banking system like checks, but are not drawn against cleared funds in a deposit account. Instead they are drawn against “available funds” that are not in a bank account, so the issuer can collect interest on the float. In the US, warrants are issued by government entities such as the military and state and county governments. Warrants are issued for payroll to individuals and for accounts payable to vendors. Technically a warrant is not payable on demand and may not be negotiable.^[2] Deposited warrants are routed to a collecting bank which processes them as collection items like maturing treasury bills and presents the warrants to the government entity’s Treasury Department for payment each business day.

In the UK, warrants are issued as payment by the NS&I when a Premium Bond is chosen.

Payroll Outsourcing

Businesses may decide to outsource their payroll functions to an outsourcing service like a payroll bureau or a fully managed payroll service. These can normally reduce the costs involved in having payroll trained employees in-house as well as the costs of systems and software needed to process payroll. Within the United States, business payrolls are complicated in that taxes must be filed consistently and accurately to applicable regulatory agencies. Restaurant payrolls which typically include tip calculations, deductions, garnishments and other variables can be extremely difficult to manage especially for new or small business owners.

In the UK, payroll bureaus will deal with all HM Revenue & Customs enquiries and deal with employee’s queries. Payroll bureaus also produce reports for the businesses’ account department and payslips for the employees and can also make the payments to the employees if required.

Another reason many businesses outsource is because of the ever increasing complexity of payroll legislation. Annual changes in tax codes, PAYE and National Insurance bands as well as more and more statutory payments and deductions having to go through the payroll often mean there is a lot to keep abreast of in order to maintain compliance with the current legislation.

See also

• Payrolling

REDUNDANCY

Layoff is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or (more commonly) a group of employees forbusiness reasons, such as the decision that certain positions are no longer necessary or a business slow-down or interruption in work. Originally the term “layoff” referred exclusively to a temporary interruption in work, as when factory work cyclically falls off. However, in recent times the term can also refer to the permanent elimination of a position.

Downsizing is the ‘conscious use of permanent personnel reductions in an attempt to improve efficiency and/or effectiveness’ (Budros 1999, p. 70). Since the 1980s, downsizing has gained strategic legitimacy. Indeed, recent research on downsizing in the US (Baumol et al. 2003, see also the American Management Association annual surveys since 1990), UK (Sahdev et al. 1999; Chorely 2002; Mason 2002; Rogers 2002), and Japan (Mroczkowski and Hanaoka 1997; Ahmakjian and Robinson 2001) suggests that downsizing is being regarded by management as one of the preferred routes to turning around declining organisations, cutting cost and improving organisational performance (Mellahi and Wilkinson 2004 )most often as a cost-cutting measure.

Further euphemisms are often used to “soften the blow” in the process of firing and being fired, (Wilkinson 2005, Redman and Wilkinson,2006) including downsize, rightsize, smartsize, redeployment, workforce reduction, workforce optimization, simplification, force shaping,Recussionand reduction in force (also called a “RIF“, especially in the government employment sector). Mass layoff implies laying off a large number of workers. Attrition implies that positions will be eliminated as workers quit or retire. Early retirement means workers may quit now yet still remain eligible for their retirement benefits later. While redundancy is a specific legal term in UK employment law, it may be perceived asobfuscation. Firings imply misconduct or failure while lay-offs imply economic forces beyond one’s control.

Unemployment compensation

The method of separation may have an effect on a former employee’s ability to collect whatever form of unemployment compensation might be available in their jurisdiction. In many U.S. states, workers who are laid off can file an unemployment claim and receive compensation. Depending on local or state laws, workers who leave voluntarily are generally ineligible to collect unemployment benefits, as are those who are fired for gross misconduct. Also, lay-offs due to a firm’s moving production overseas may entitle one to increased re-training benefits.

Certain countries (e.g. France), distinguish between leaving the company of one’s free will, in which case the person isn’t entitled to unemployment benefits and leaving the company voluntarily in the frame of a RIF, in which case the person is entitled to them. An RIF reduced the number of positions, rather than laying off specific people, and is usually accompanied by internalredeployment. A person might leave even if their job isn’t reduced, unless the employer has strong objections. In this situation, it’s more beneficial for the state to facilitate the departure of the more professionally active people, since they are less likely to remain jobless. Often they find new jobs while still being paid by their old companies, costing nothing to the social security system in the end.

There have also been increasing concerns about the organisational effectiveness of the post-downsized ‘anorexic organisation’. The benefits, which organisations claim to be seeking from downsizing, centre on savings in labour costs, speedier decision making, better communication, reduced product development time, enhanced involvement of employees and greater responsiveness to customers (De Meuse et al. 1997, p. 168). However, some writers draw attention to the ‘obsessive’ pursuit of downsizing to the point of self-starvation marked by excessive cost cutting, organ failure and an extreme pathological fear of becoming inefficient. Hence ‘trimming’ and ‘tightening belts’ are the order of the day (Tyler and Wilkinson 2007)