Change to FLSA - Staff FAQs

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulates whether an employee is overtime-eligible (“non-exempt”) or overtime-exempt (“exempt”). Most employees covered by the FLSA must be paid at least the minimum wage and premium pay for any overtime hours worked. The minimum wage for California can be found here. Some localities have adopted higher minimum wages. The FLSA does, however, exempt certain kinds of covered employees from the minimum wage and overtime requirements, including bona fide executive, administrative, and professional employees. To qualify for one of the executive, administrative or professional exemptions, an employee must be paid a predetermined salary that is above a certain amount and meet the applicable duties test.

Professors, lecturers, tutors and other teachers, doctors, medical residents, veterinarians and attorneys are not subject to either the salary basis or salary level tests. This means that these professionals are considered exempt regardless of the amount they earn for performing services.

Beginning January 1, 2025, to qualify for the executive, administrative or professional exemption, the FLSA requires that an employee earn no less than $1,128 per week, or $58,656 per year. To comply with this new overtime rule, the University of California has reviewed your position and salary and reclassified you as overtime-eligible.

The FLSA requires the University to keep certain records for each non-exempt, overtime-eligible employee, including records of the number of hours worked each day and the amount of wages earned. Talk to your manager or supervisor about UCI’s local time reporting requirements and the Time Reporting System (TRS).

Time Reporting System (TRS) is a flexible, scalable, and secure online timesheet application for employees and supervisors. The TRS Resource page contains helpful information for all TRS users including instructions for bi-weekly employees.

There are several policies and provisions that address the terms of employment for non-exempt/ overtime-eligible staff employees, including, but not limited to your collective bargaining agreement (if you are part of a bargaining unit) or PPSM 30 (Compensation) and PPSM - 2.210 (Absence From Work) if your position is covered by University policy.

If you are re-classified as a non-exempt employee and eligible for overtime, your pay period will change from monthly to biweekly.

Those employees who transition to non-exempt, overtime-eligible employees based on the January 1, 2025, FLSA exempt-salary threshold increase will transition to the biweekly pay schedule no later than 1/1/25.

Here are examples of the specific pay dates for biweekly pay starting 1/1/25:

• 1/2/25: Last monthly paycheck for work performed between 12/1/2024 through 12/31/2024. This paycheck includes the disability benefits deductions for the month of December, and all other benefits deductions for the month of January.
• 1/15/25: First paycheck for biweekly period of 1/1/2025 through 1/4/2025. This paycheck includes the second ½ of January benefits deductions for disability, FSA and HSA accounts, and the second ½ of February deductions for all other benefits. UCPath will work with employee to collect the benefits deductions for the first ½ of January and first ½ of February that were missed and address the over collection of contributions to FSA and HSA accounts. This will not cause a lapse in benefits.
• 1/29/25: Paycheck for biweekly period of 1/5/2025 through 1/18/2025; benefits deductions holiday.
• 2/12/25: Paycheck for biweekly period of 1/19/2025 through 2/1/2025. This paycheck includes the first ½ of February benefits deductions for disability, FSA and HSA accounts, and the first ½ of March deductions.

You will receive a minimum of 26 and a maximum of 27 paychecks in a year. Because biweekly periods do not always line up exactly to the calendar year, there is often a biweekly pay period that crosses over from December to January. As a result, the gross pay reported on an annual W-2 tax form may not exactly match your annualized pay rate, and occasionally there will be 27 periods in one year. See the Biweekly Payroll Calendar for the biweekly pay schedule.

For staff and academic employees, your accruals are based on your hours on paid status. If the time you are paid for varies, then so will your accruals. Therefore, a full-time employee should expect to see the same accruals over the course of the year, while part-time employees’ accrual will vary.

Accruals for biweekly employees are credited at the end of every two pay periods (every four weeks) based on hours on pay status during those two pay periods. Biweekly employees accrue 13 times in a calendar year, compared to 12 times for monthly employees. The accruals for each pay period are therefore smaller, but your annual vacation and sick accrual rate is the same.

Yes, if you are a policy-covered employee, your eligibility may change and it will follow existing university policy (PPSM-2.210 Absence from Work. Section H.1.b.). Under this policy, part-time non-exempt employees who are on pay status of 50 percent time or more receive holiday pay in proportion to the percentage of time they are on pay status. Policy-covered exempt employees receive holiday pay in proportion to their percentage appointment. For union-represented employees, please consult your collective bargaining agreement.

There are two methods you can use to calculate your hourly rate (based on a 40-hour workweek):

• Method 1: Take your monthly salary rate and divide by 174 (the average number of working hours in a month). For example, if your monthly salary is $3250.00 per month: $3250.00 ÷ 174 = $18.68 per hour.
• Method 2: Take your annual salary and divide it by 2088 (the number of working hours in a year). For example, if your annual salary rate is $39,000.00 per year: $39,000.00 ÷ 2088 = $18.68 per hour.

No.

For monthly paid employees, flat dollar amount deductions and percentage based deductions are taken from each monthly paycheck. For biweekly paid employees, flat dollar amount deductions are split between two pay periods (for a total of 24 paychecks) and percentage based deductions are taken out of all 26 paychecks.

A deduction holiday occurs when there are three biweekly pay periods in a month. During a deduction holiday, no flat-dollar deductions are taken from pay; only percent-based deductions are taken. Typically, deduction holidays occur twice a year, based on pay period end date. Pay dates with deduction holidays can be found on the Biweekly Payroll Calendar.

The UC mandatory retirement contributions, University of California Retirement Plan and the Defined Contribution Plan, are taken each biweekly payday.

Percentage deduction: If you set up your contributions as a percentage deduction, the percentage amount will be taken each paycheck (26 times a year). For example, if your current 403(b) contribution is 5 percent per month, a 5 percent contribution will be made each biweekly payday.

Flat Dollar deduction: If you set up your contributions as a fixed flat dollar amount, the flat dollar amount will be split in half, and one-half will be withheld per biweekly payday. For example, if your current 403(b) contribution is $100.00 per month, it will be divided into a $50.00 contribution each biweekly payday.  For months with three paychecks, one paycheck will have no fixed flat dollar deductions taken.

If you have an additional tax amount deducted from your paycheck, that monthly amount will be split in half, and one-half will be withheld from each biweekly check. If you would like to adjust your additional withholding amount, please go to the UCPath website and review and/or update your W-4/DE-4 Form. For other tax questions, please consult IRS and State Franchise Tax Board websites or contact a tax professional for help. For other tax questions, please consult IRS (https://www.irs.gov/) and State Franchise Tax Board (for California: https://www.ftb.ca.gov/) websites or contact a tax professional for help.

If you have automatic bill pay set up for any regular expenses, such as mortgage payments, student loan payments, or car payments, we encourage you to work directly with your financial institution(s) to change payment dates as needed. As a biweekly employee, your pay dates vary since you are paid every other Wednesday (unless a University holiday falls on a Wednesday).

If the garnishment deduction is calculated as a percentage of your earnings, a deduction will occur each pay period, up to the maximum deduction allowed based on federal and state regulations. For example, if your garnishment deduction is 25 percent of your pay, that amount will be deducted each payday.

If the garnishment deduction is a fixed amount, the amount will be recalculated to a biweekly amount. That calculation is then divided into two payments. For example, a monthly $250 garnishment payment will become $125, deducted during each biweekly paycheck.

As explained in Question 8 under Biweekly Pay Schedule, the month of January will be a “transition” month. On January 2, employees who are converting from monthly paid to biweekly paid will receive a paycheck for the time worked between December 1 and December 31. The time worked from January 1st – January 4th will be received approximately two weeks later, on January 15th. The time worked from January 5th – January 18th will be received approximately two weeks later, on January 29th. This initial month of transition may result in financial hardship to impacted employees. See #22 and #23 for information regarding assistance.

It is important that you review your personal budget situation and determine your income needs based on the new biweekly pay schedule. In preparation for the conversion, we suggest that you take the following steps:

• Review your current tax withholding elections and make any necessary changes. Pay particular attention to additional tax withholding amounts.
• Review your current voluntary contributions to your 403(b) and 457(b) plans.
• If appropriate, request that third parties adjust your automatic withdrawal or bill-pay dates to align with your new pay schedule.
• Following the transition, review your paystub carefully to ensure that deductions for insurance premiums and parking, as well as leave accruals, are accurate.
• Review any direct billing arrangements with UCPath and contact UCPath to request any necessary changes.

The UCI campus will be offering a Transition Assistance Vacation Cash-Out program that allows you to cash out up to 80 hours of your accrued and unused vacation balance to assist you in meeting financial obligations during the transition period. To be eligible for the program an employee must:

1. Have transitioned from a monthly to a bi-weekly pay cycle due to the DOL’s change in FLSA exemption threshold.
2. Be on active or paid leave status.
3. Have the hours in their vacation bank.

The vacation cash out will be calculated as follows:
Cash out value = (hourly rate x vacation hours). It will be paid as part of your normal paycheck where it will be subject to all applicable deductions.

The deadline for requesting vacation cash-out is December 20th, 2024. If you would like more information about this program, please contact your HR Representative.

Additionally, employees may be eligible for the Staff Housing Assistance program. Employees may also be eligible for the Emergency Loan Program.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact your manager/supervisor. If you still have a concern, contact your department’s HR/Academic Personnel representative.

Additional information and resources can be found at hr.uci.edu/partnership/FLSA.