The application automatically calculates an employee's pay when you process pay-related personnel actions. For example, calculation rules facilitate processing individual Request for Personnel Action (RPA) actions such as Appointment and Promotion actions, mass salary actions such as Annual Pay Adjustments, and automatic mass actions such as Within Grade Increases.
The pay system or pay schedule associated to the employee's position or retained grade determines the employee's compensation and sets the employee's rate of basic pay. Oracle US Federal HR includes predefined elements for pay and standard and special rate pay tables commonly used in federal agencies.
Increasingly, HR professionals must manage employees under a variety of regulatory systems. The RPA calculates the pay for an employee based on the regulatory system defined in the employee's assigned position. For example, standard and alternative HR systems have different pay cap rules for setting the total salary when the total pay exceeds the total salary cap. The application determines which system governs the person's pay and then applies the appropriate pay calculation rules.
See: Alternative Federal HR Systems
Regulation updates issued by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) affect how you compensate your employees. For example, the Federal Wage Flexibility Act (FWFA) affects how agencies apply special rate schedules. The RPA process captures the information required to calculate an employee's pay based on these regulations. When you process a salary change action or an automatic Within Grade Increases (WGI) or Quality Step Increases (QSI) for GS and equivalent pay plans, the application determines if the person's position or retained grade contains a special rate table. The pay calculation process sets the Pay Rate Determinant (PRD) based on whether locality or special rate supplement entitlements apply, and then calculates the person's pay accordingly.
Using an RPA mass process, you can update employee and position records when OPM ends a special rate table or a specific pay plan, grade and step combination.
See: Pay Table Changes
You can calculate pay based on pay tables commonly used by US Federal agencies. You can also set up agency-specific pay tables and pay plans. For example, you might set up Federal Wage System (FWS) pay tables for regional pay rates.
The predefined pay tables include:
GS and equivalent standard and special rate pay tables for national and worldwide pay plans.
Senior Executive (ESSL) pay tables for SES equivalent pay range pay plans.
Inspector general (IG) pay tables for inspector general pay range plan.
The application also supports FWS pay calculations and supplies FWS equivalent pay plan and grade combinations.
An Assignment extra information segment (Calculation Pay Table) stores the pay table identifier used to calculate the person's current pay.
The application automatically calculates the total pay using the following elements to determine the Total Salary in an RPA:
Basic Pay
Locality Adjustment or Special Rate Supplement where applicable
Adjusted Basic Pay
Other Pay when applicable, including Availability Pay (AP), Administratively Uncontrollable Overtime (AUO), and Supervisory Differential
Total Pay
Automatic pay calculations occur when you process an action that changes the person's:
Position (pay table identifier or valid grade)
Pay Rate Determinant (PRD)
Step or Rate
Duty Station when Locality Area and Percentage Change
Retained Grade
Locality Area and Locality Percentage
If you process an RPA that does not automatically calculate pay, such as an Appointment for an employee with Retained Pay, the application informs you that you must manually enter the pay information, and then opens the pay fields for direct data entry.
If you change information on an RPA that precludes automatic calculation, such as a change from non-Retained Pay to Retained Pay, the application retains the salary information and opens the pay fields for manual entry, and no further automatic changes to salary amounts occur.
The application calculates an employee's annual pay and compares it to a maximum dollar amount to determine whether the employee exceeds the maximum salary amount.
The application performs a pay cap check when it:
Calculates the pay on an RPA or mass action such as a Mass Salary action
Calculates the pay for awards, bonuses, and incentives
For Per Hour employees, the application calculates the Adjusted Basic Pay by multiplying the hourly rate by 2087. The resulting annualized salary is then used to check the maximum allowable amount.
Updates a pay-related action to the HR database
When the application calculates pay, if the Adjusted Basic Pay (Basic Pay and Locality Pay) meets the pay cap limits, the application adjusts the Locality Pay. The application then compares the Total Pay to the aggregate pay limits. Different pay cap rules apply based on the regulatory system that governs the employee.
For example, for standard employees paid under Title 5, if an employee has Other Pay, such as AUO or Availability Pay, the application:
Sets the Total Pay at the capped limit
Displays the amount necessary to reduce the Other Pay as the Capped Other Pay on the RPA. Upon update to HR, the application stores the amount in the Other Pay element.
The application retains the actual authorized amounts for AUO, Availability Pay, and Supervisory Differential. If the pay reaches the aggregate pay limitation, then these nondiscretionary payments carryover to the following calendar year.
For information about pay caps on Adjusted Basic Pay and Total Pay for employees paid under alternative federal human resource systems, refer to Alternative Federal HR Systems
You can appoint Senior Executive Service (SES) applicants to SES pay range positions. When you process an RPA and choose an SES position, the application verifies that the resulting basic pay against the predefined Senior Executive Service (ESSL) pay table for SES equivalent pay plans and ensures that the pay falls within the minimum and maximum allowable amounts for Total Pay and Adjusted Basic Pay. For annual pay adjustments, you can process a Mass Salary action to award percentage increases.
See: Processing a Mass Percent Pay Adjustment
If you have employees paid on SES pay tables, you must establish and then certify performance appraisal systems used as a basis for administering salary increases for these employees. When you process pay adjustment actions for SES employees, business rules apply pay cap checks based upon your agency's level of certification: full, provisional, or none.
See: Compensation Actions
If you have agency-specific pay range plans, you can define agency pay tables and pay plans and then process individual and mass salary actions for the employees on these pay plans. You define pay range tables and pay plans using the standard implementation steps.
See: Set up Pay Plans, Grades, and Compensation
You can identify and appropriately pay employees serving as Law Enforcement Officers (LEO). You indicate whether a position is a Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) position by entering a 1 or 2 in the LEO Indicator field in Position Group 2 Extra Information. The pay calculation process calculates locality adjustment pay for LEO employees. The application appropriately calculates pay for LEO employees on Oracle Federal Special Rate Pay Table (GS) No. 0491 as a basic rate schedule. For example, the application uses the same rules designated for pay plan GS pay table 0000 to calculate the locality pay for employees on 0491 pay tables with GL and GG pay plans.
You can identify and process pay for inspector general positions. You indicate whether a position is an inspector general position by selecting the IG-00 grade. The application processes the IG type of pay plan using the Oracle Federal Standard Pay Table (AL, ES, EX, GS, GG) as a basic rate schedule. Only Pay Rate Determinant values 0 and S apply to IG Pay Plan.
You can identify and process pay for physicians or dentists. You indicate whether a position is a physician or a dentist position by entering the Clinical Specialty, Phys and Dent Pay Range Table, and Tier fields in the US Federal Valid Grade Info Extra Information. The application processes GP (GS pay plan for physicians and dentists) and GR (GM pay plan for physicians and dentists) types of pay plan using the Oracle Federal Standard Pay Table (GP, GR) as a basic rate schedule.
When you grant an employee Supervisory Differential, you process an Other Pay action and enter the amount or percentage of differential to pay the employee. The application includes this resulting amount in the calculation of Other Pay, and stores the information in the Supervisory Differential element. If the person's basic pay changes, the application retains the amount of the Supervisory Differential.
If you process a NOAC that changes the pay (702, 703, 713, 500-599, 781, 892, 893, or 894) and the total pay exceeds the total pay cap limit, the application informs you that you must process an 810 NOAC Change in Allowance/Differential to change or terminate the percentage or amount of the authorized Supervisory Differential.
As an HR manager, you compensate employees by processing individual RPA actions or mass actions, including pay increases and pay adjustments. The Date Last Equivalent Increase (DLEI) reflects the date on which employees received their latest equivalent pay increases. The NOAC you select when processing an RPA and the regulatory system defined in the employe's assigned position determine whether the application automatically updates the DLEI data segment of the RPA extra information with the RPA effective date or whether you enter a date.
For example, the application automatically updates all appropriate Appointment actions (NOAC 100s) with the RPA effective date. With Transfer actions (NOAC 130), the DLEI does not always correspond to the RPA effective date, so you enter the DLEI date.
When you process pay increase for an employee on a standard regulatory systems, you grant pay increases based on defined waiting periods. The application updates the employee's Within Grade Increase element with the DLEI. When you process actions for employees on alternative federal HR systems, you grant discretionary pay increases based on performance. The application updates the date for the DLEI with the effective date of the RPA or with a date provided by you.
See: Compensation Actions