To: Campus Unit Finance Leads, OHR Leads and Secondary Contacts, University Business Managers, Gradstar Listserv
From: Walter Miller, Director of Payroll Services; Beverly Wyrick, Associate Dean, The Graduate School
Effective with the January 2024 monthly payroll, partial period proration for persons on the monthly payroll will be updated to a workday methodology instead of a calendar-day methodology. For employees working the entire period (a full month), there is no change. This change is being implemented to create a consistent proration methodology across both the biweekly and monthly payroll.
This update means that employees who are hired, terminated or transfer during the month will be prorated based on the number of weekdays (Monday through Friday) during the partial month. Summer salary calculators and graduate student stipend calculators are being updated to reflect this change.
When an employee works a full month, their “monthly pay rate” is 1/12 of their annual salary or stipend. This calculation is the same in both methods. For example, an employee terminates after the spring 2024 semester (5/16/2024). Based on the historical calendar-day methodology, the May paycheck amount would be prorated by the number of days on payroll (16) over calendar days in May (31) or monthly pay rate x 16/31. Based on the updated workday methodology, the monthly paycheck amount would be prorated by the number of Monday-to-Fridays on payroll (12) over the number of Monday-to-Fridays in May 2024 (23) or monthly pay rate x 12/23.
The May 2024 payroll for graduate students terming based on the Graduate School’s guidance will be slightly higher due to this change; therefore, the minimum stipend requirement in GradStar will not be impacted.
If you have questions, please email payroll@unc.edu.