Payroll Manual

Background Information

The Earnings Section has a wide variety of responsibilities which focus on ensuring that approximately 300,000 New York State employees in more than 500 payroll agencies are paid correctly and in accordance with appropriate laws, rules, regulations, and contractual provisions. The Section performs its responsibilities for employees of the Executive, Judiciary, Legislature, State University, and senior colleges of the City University of New York. 

The weekly transaction review covers both the Administrative and Institution pay cycles for the Executive and Non-Executive Branch agencies. Earnings Section staff analyze weekly payroll information submitted by agencies in the payroll system (PayServ). Specific categories of review include: 

  •  Job Requests – Agencies submit Job Requests via the Job Action Requests page to process Pay Rate Changes (performance advance, salary increase, new hire, re-hire and concurrent hire salaries, discretionary increase, minimum wage), Position Changes (promotion, demotions, transfer, traineeship advance), and Data Changes (changes to employee’s work schedule, percentage changes, increment code, anniversary date changes and correct histories).  There is a program that auto approves certain transactions that meet set programmed requirements. The remaining transactions require OSC Auditor review and approval.
  • Additional Pay – Pay categories which must be included in the calculation of overtime. Two (2) categories: recurring (a.k.a. - Additional Salary Factors) and one-time (a.k.a. - PS&T Longevity). The additional payments that are recurring every pay period are added to an employee's base annual salary for calculations of their biweekly payment. One-time payments that impact the overtime calculation are added to an employee's base annual salary and processed for a specific period of time. Also used for negative earnings codes (such as overpayment and salary withholding), lump sums, tax purposes, miscellaneous payments, etc.
  • Time Entry – Pay categories not included in the calculation of overtime. These are one-time, non-recurring payments. Used for adjustments, holidays, overtime, shifts, lost time, special allowances, tax purposes, and a broad range of other one-time payments.
  • Certification – Reconciling discrepancies between the Department of Civil Service’s human resources system (NYSTEP) and PayServ to ensure that positions requiring Civil Service certification are processed in accordance with the law. Upon completion of the transaction review, staff “calculate” (the process which compiles the input data and calculates the paychecks; during which the earnings, deductions, taxes, and net pay are determined for all employees) and “confirm” (the process which performs the final calculation of paychecks; once completed, no additional changes are possible) paychecks for final payment and distribution.
  • Position Management – Positions are the basis for all jobs in PayServ and are established in the PayServ system either manually or by file. Position Management staff are assigned to review reports and queries created by the position process. After processing, a report is created of all the positions that make up the Schedule of Positions for the Division of the Budget. This report among others is created to document all positions and all employees paid through PayServ for New York State.


Last Updated: 06/26/2025