Legacy - Payroll Calculation for Regular Biweekly Employees

The State of Idaho automatically calculates overtime during payroll processing at the Division of Statewide Payroll (DSP). This process takes hours entered on time sheets and automatically calculates the overtime and any applicable RHH, shift, etc. 

Idaho code 67-5302 defines overtime as "time worked on holidays and time worked in excess of forty (40) hours" in a week, with the exception of law enforcement (FLSA code L) who will receive overtime for time "in excess of one hundred sixty hours (160) hours in a period of twenty-eight (28) consecutive days".  Payroll Calculation Examples - 28 Day Cycle

The payroll system automatically calculates overtime hours according to the employee's:

  • FLSA code - will determine if an employee is eligible for overtime at time and one-half, straight time or not eligible for any overtime compensation.  The FLSA code also determines if the employee is eligible to receive pay or comp time hours for overtime. 
  • Overtime Indicator - Agencies have the capability to override the Overtime and Shift indicators so an employee can get paid for or accrue overtime and receive shift pay for a particular week or weeks. 
    • If not overridden, the system defaults to the Overtime and Shift indicators on the employee's personnel record.
  • Actual (ACT) hours submitted 

Overtime will be automatically calculated only when ACT is used.  If REG is coded, overtime must be manually coded.  If an employee is in different FLSA codes during the pay period, hours worked should be coded as REG and overtime must be manually calculated.

Note:  If coding ACT, do not code the following earnings codes - REG, OTS, OTA, OPS or OTP.  These codes, when entered with ACT will cause the employee's time to reject and an error message on report Payroll Processing Messages B-444395.

Employees will code all actual hours worked (ACT), holiday (HOL), hours worked on a holiday (Holiday - Overtime HOW, HOA, etc.) and leave taken (VAC, SIC, etc.).  Leave taken should not exceed the employee's normal pay period hours in a given week.

Hours coded as OTD will be treated as ACT hours but allow the agency to pick the distribution for any applicable overtime.

During payroll processing, overtime will be calculated and generated to either pay or accrue and ACT hours will convert to REG.  All hours worked on a holiday must be coded with the applicable holiday overtime earnings code (HOA, HOS, HOW, HWL, HOP, etc).  Holiday overtime hours will be included in the calculation of overtime.

Hourly Payroll Calculation Worksheet (This form must be opened in Acrobat Reader once downloaded in the web browser)

Payroll Calculation Examples – Regular Biweekly Employee

The following six steps make up the formula for calculating payroll for regular biweekly employees. 

1. Holiday Pay (Earnings code = HOL)

Holiday is a day of exemption from work, for which employees are paid as if they had worked. Holiday Pay

2. Holiday Overtime (Earnings codes = HOA, HOW, HOS, HOP, and HWL)

All hours worked on a holiday are compensated as overtime, per Idaho Code 67-5302.  This applies to benefitted and non-benefitted employees.

  • Covered employees can either accrue or be paid for overtime at a rate of time and one-half.  The system will generate the additional half time from the hours coded (example: 3 hours coded = 4.5 hours compensated).
  • Exempt employees can only accrue compensatory time for overtime on an hour-for-hour basis (example: 3 hours coded = 3 hours compensated)  

3. Overtime (Earnings codes = OTA, OTP, OTS and OPS)

Employees receive overtime compensation for all hours worked over 40 in a week (Sunday through Saturday (7) day period, including hours worked on a holiday). 

To manually calculate overtime hours: take all hours worked, subtract 40, the difference is your overtime hours.  Covered employees will receive time and one-half in either comp time or pay and exempt employees receive straight comp time.

4. Leave Taken (Earnings codes = SIC, VAC, CPT, RHT, etc.)

All paid and unpaid leave is coded on a weekly basis.

Some examples of leave taken are Vacation, Sick, Comp Time, etc.  Hours of leave taken will be deducted from the employee's leave balances.  If there is not enough leave to cover the hours coded, the leave default procedure will be used.  See Earnings Codes, Time Codes, Leave Defaults or Payroll Leave Default Messages report D-444395.

5. Regular Time (Earnings code = REG)

All remaining hours worked are compensated at the employee's regular rate of pay. 

To determine the amount of regular pay, subtract all overtime (regular overtime and holiday overtime) from the total hours worked in the week, the difference is the regular hours.