December 13, 2023

Bargaining Units 01, 03, 04, 11, 14, 15, 17, 20, and 21 General Salary Increases Mass Update Effective July 1, 2023

Action Required: Share the following information with all human resources (HR) office employees.

Description: In preparation for Bargaining Units 01, 03, 04, 11, 14, 15, 17, 20, and 21 General Salary Increases Mass Update effective July 1, 2023, departments should refrain from keying Employment History (EH) transactions on December 14, 2023 for eligible employees. In addition, please review and correct any expired appointment expiration (Item 416), or separation expiration date (Item 645) for applicable employees prior to the mass update. 

Please refer to Personnel Action Manual (PAM) sections 2.54 and 2.86 for additional information.

Population Affected: All HR Offices

Tips for Supporting Employees with Lump Sum Separations

Action Required: Share the following information with all human resources (HR) office employees. 

Description: To help ensure that your lump sum separation Personnel Action Request (PAR) packages are accurately processed and meet the mandated requirements, use the tools in the Lump Sum Separation Toolkit and follow these tips. 

  • Lump sum and tax-exempt employees: For employees claiming a tax exemption, the tax exemption will expire on January 31, 2024. Any lump sum payment issuing beyond the January pay period will revert to “single” for federal and “single and zero” for state. Therefore, to continue a tax exemption beyond the January 2024 pay period, departments must key an Employee Action Request (EAR) transaction permanently exempting (PERM) the employee from taxes. To permanently exempt an employee from taxes, follow the keying instructions in the Federal Withholding FAQs under How do I key PERM exempt for a deceased employee? (You will find additional information in the EAR Keying Guide and PAM Section 10.16.1.) Personnel and Payroll Operations Bureau (PPOB) recommends that departments key the permanent exemption EAR transaction prior to submitting the lump sum PAR package. Personnel and Payroll Operations Bureau will not re-issue lump sum payments due to untimely or incorrect EAR transactions. 
  • 457(b) Traditional Catch-Up 
    • The employee must include the catch-up amount in the 457(b) amount(s) that they enter on the Election Form under 457(b). 
    • Be sure to include the catch-up approval letter if the employee is using the Traditional 457(b) Catch-Up in the 457(b) plan. 
  • Enough accrued leave? Check to ensure that the employee has enough accrued leave to fund the amounts that they indicated in the Election Form. Some resources to assist with this include: 
    • Lump Sum eLearning modules 3 and 4 
    • Your department’s procedures 
    • The Lump Sum Worksheet – used to reconcile the employee’s leave balances 
    • The Lump Sum Calculator – used to determine the total pre-tax amount available to the employee; takes into account important deductions such as Social Security, Medicare, and the projection buffer when determining an employee’s lump sum across pay periods. 

Population Affected: All HR Offices