Datatech customers typically print detail on employees payroll checks stubs, itemizing each payroll entry for the employee. After reviewing the AB 1513 regulations, Datatech posed this question to the DIR: Do totals for Rest & Recovery and Other Non-Productive Time have to be totaled for the workweek if the detail is already included on the stub? The answer was Yes.
Below is a recap of the wage statement requirements from California’s DIR (Department of Industrial Relations) website: https://www.dir.ca.gov/pieceratebackpayelection/AB_1513_FAQs.htm
Below the recap and in the following blog article, we’ll discuss existing check format options and new enhancements available for Datatech customers to comply with these regulations.
Are there any new wage statement requirements under this law?
(2) The itemized statement required by subdivision (a) of [Labor Code] Section 226 shall, in addition to the other items specified in that subdivision, separately state the following, to which the provisions of Section 226 shall also be applicable:
(A) The total hours of compensable rest and recovery periods, the rate of compensation, and the gross wages paid for those periods during the pay period.
(B) Except for employers paying compensation for other nonproductive time in accordance with paragraph (7), the total hours of other nonproductive time, as determined under paragraph (5), the rate of compensation, and the gross wages paid for that time during the pay period.
As indicated in the language in italics above, an employer is not required to state the total hours of other nonproductive time, the rate of compensation, or the gross wages paid for that time, if the employer “in addition to paying any piece-rate compensation, pays an hourly rate of at least the applicable minimum wage for all hours worked,” as authorized by the “safe harbor” language in subdivision (a)(7).
The new wage statement requirements should be read in tandem with the current requirement under section 226, subdivision (a), that an itemized wage statement show “all applicable hourly rates in effect during the pay period and the corresponding number of hours worked at each hourly rate by the employee . . . .” (§226(a)(9).) To the extent there may be overlap between this provision and new section 226.2(a)(2) going forward, the requirements will be harmonized. Employers will not be required to state the same information twice on the wage statement.
Initially, Datatech was advising customers to enable the option “Summary by Type/Rate” in the Program Set up > Payroll > Check Printing options to comply with the new regulations. This option prints a recap at the end of the stub or Check Voucher, totaling hours & wages by Wage Code and Rate.
There were two issues that arose with this option: 1) Minimum and Guaranteed wage adjustments were itemized individually by rate, so the summary could take quite a bit of room and 2) if there are multiple Wage Codes that are considered rest & recovery or non-productive time respectively, they need to be totaled together, which the current option didn’t do.
Here is a current Check Stub with the existing Summary by Type/Rate option:
Entries using the same Wage Code are combined into one total, therefore meeting the AB 1513 regulations. However, if there are multiple Wage Codes used that fall into the category of rest & recovery or non-productive time respectively, they would not be combined into a total in the current format. Additionally, minimum wage and guaranteed wage entries would print on separate lines for each adjustment because the rates are different.
The next article will address these changes we’ve made to the Wage Code set up to resolve these issues.