As a practitioner, you can create and assign wage rate programs that define special rates for specific labor charge combinations. These rates can be defined relative to employees' base rates or as substitute rates that override employee rates. For example, you can create a wage rate program that specifies that work in Department A on Task 100 is paid at a rate that is $3.00 per hour more than each employee's base rate, while work in any Department on Job B, Task 200 is paid at a rate that is two times each employee's base rate. The same wage rate program could also specify that work on Job C is paid at the flat rate of $40 per hour, regardless of the department in which it is performed or the employee's base rate.

A wage rate program is a collection of wage rate definitions. Each wage rate definition specifies a rate that is applied when a timecard record is charged to a specific combination of labor charge values. To create a wage rate program, you first define the basic properties of the program and then you add specific wage rate definitions to it. The procedure below describes how to create your first wage rate program. If you have already defined some wage rate programs and you want to create a new program that is similar to an existing one, you can save time and increase the accuracy of your work by copying the existing wage rate program and then modifying the copy.

To create a new wage rate program:

  1. From the Time & Attendance menu, select Setup.

    Note: If the Setup option is not visible, make sure that you have selected Practitioner in the Role Selector.

  2. Under the Labor Charge Fields heading, click the Wage Rate Programs link. The Wage Rate Programs page opens and displays a list of any already defined wage rate programs.

  3. Click the Add New button on the right side of the page. The Wage Rate Program page opens.

  4. In the Wage Rate Program field, enter an ID for the new wage rate program. The wage rate ID is a unique name that is used throughout the application to identify the wage rate program. It can be up to 25 characters in length.

  5. In the Description fields for each language that your company supports, enter a short phrase that describes the wage rate program. This description appears in the Wage Rate Program Lookup window and can help you determine which wage rate program to select.

    Note: You must enter a description in the text box marked with a red triangle ( required_field.gif ) . If your company supports other languages, enter descriptions in the text boxes for those languages, as appropriate.

  6. In the Rate Comparison Options section, select the option that describes how Time & Attendance module determines whether to use the rates in the wage rate program or an employee's base rate. The available options are:

  1. If you want the wage rate program to be applied even when employees are working in their home labor charge values, uncheck the Do not apply Wage Rates to employee's home labor charge values box. By default, this option is checked and the wage rate program is not applied to employees when they work in their home departments, jobs, etc.

  2. Click the Submit button. The page refreshes and displays a wage rate definition table and search filter.

  3. Click the Add Definitions link near the bottom of the page. A Wage Rate Program pop-up window opens and displays five blank rows.

  4. In the first row, use the Lookup button in each labor charge column (for example, Department, Job, and Task) to select the specific combination of labor charge values for which you want to define a rate.

    Notes:
    Specific labor charge values must have already been created for your company before you can define rates within a wage rate program. See Creating New Labor Charge Values for instructions.

    The rate defined on a given row is only applied to timecard records that match the combination of values on the row exactly. If you do not select a value for a column, it defaults to "ANY." For each rate you define, at least one column must have a value other than "ANY."

    If a labor charge category used by your company does not appear in the Wage Rate Program table, it has not been configured for use in wage rate programs. Free-form labor charge fields (those in which users can type in any value, rather than selecting a value from a limited, predefined set of values) and the Time Zone labor charge field cannot be configured for use in wage rate programs. Contact your system administrator or ADP Time & Attendance Representative if a labor charge category you want to use is not listed in the pop-up window.

  5. In the Effective Date column, click the Select Date button, and then select from the Calendar lookup window the date on which you want the rate to become effective.

    Note: Within a wage rate program, only one wage rate can be in effect for a given combination of labor charge values. You can, however, schedule changes in the rate for a particular combination by creating multiple rate definitions that are identical except for their effective dates and rate amounts. When multiple rates exist with the same labor charge value criteria, the rate with the latest effective date that has already passed is the effective rate. That rate remains in effect until the effective date of another rate definition with the same values is reached.

  6. In the Type column, select the calculation method for the rate. The options are:

  1. In the Amount column, enter the monetary amount to be added to the employee's base rate, the factor by which the employee's base rate should be multiplied, or the flat rate that should replace the employee's base rate.

  2. Repeat steps 10 through 13 for each additional wage rate you want to define.

    Tips:
    If you want to create a rate definition that is similar to a rate you have already entered in the pop-up window, click the Copy Row button to copy the existing rate. A new row is added that contains the same values as the copied rate, and you can simply edit the fields that you want to be different.

    If you need more blank rows, click the Add more empty rows link at the bottom of the pop-up window.

  3. After you have defined all of the wage rates for the program, click the Submit button in the pop-up window. The window closes and the rates you have just entered are added to the wage rate program and displayed in the table at the bottom of the Wage Rate Program page.

Notes:
After you have created a wage rate program, you can assign it to individual employees. Wage rate programs can also be assigned to pay groups by your ADP Time & Attendance Representative.

If your wage rate program contains multiple wage rate definitions, the following rules are used to determine the order in which they are applied:

Any wage rate that explicitly matches the exact values of a timecard record takes precedence over a rate that uses the "ANY" wildcard.

The wage rate definitions in a single wage rate program are evaluated column by column, from left to right. The rate with the best match in the left-most column takes precedence. If two or more rates have a match in the left-most column, the rate with exact matches in the two left-most columns takes precedence. If two or more rates have matches in the first two columns, the third column is evaluated, and so on. The order of the labor charge columns cannot be reconfigured.

When and how wage rates are applied is affected by how the earnings codes and pay groups used by your company have been configured. For general information about how rates are applied, see Configuring When Rates Are Used. If you have specific questions about how rates are used in your company, consult your system administrator or ADP Time & Attendance Representative.