Automation Of Pay Rates Based On Age

Overview

The Pay Rates Based on Age feature introduces a robust automation capability within the award interpreter, designed to streamline payroll processing and enhance accuracy. It automatically calculates and adjusts employee pay rates based on their age, ensuring compliance with age-specific wage structures outlined in employment awards. This feature dynamically updates pay rates as employees transition through defined age brackets, eliminating manual interventions and reducing the risk of non-compliance..

Key Benefits:

Automation of Pay Rate Adjustments: Automatically updates pay rates as employees reach specific age milestones, ensuring accurate and timely payroll processing.
Time-Saving: Eliminates the need for manual updates, improving efficiency in payroll management and reducing administrative workload.
Security and Usability: Access to the feature is restricted to users with the "Award Administrative role" for enhanced data security and ease of use.

Audience

This feature is primarily designed for payroll administrators, payroll practitioners and HR Teams who need to manage and ensure compliance with age-based pay structures in Australian payroll systems. It is available to both new and existing companies within Datapay who require a reliable solution to maintain timely and accurate payroll processing while meeting legal and organizational requirements.

Getting Started

Prerequisites:
- Required user roles: Awards Administrator.
- Global User
Setup Requirements:
- Pay Rates set up as reference values for the company/employees using this feature
- Ensuring accurate age and award data are recorded in the system.

Feature Configuration

Creating a New Award:

Click on the “Award Setup” button from the Company tab.

Click on the “+“ button on the left column on screen to create a new award in the middle column.

Click on the Drop down next to “Event type“. You can also rename the Award by clicking on the pencil icon which will save once you click on it.

Next Click on the “+“ in the middle column across the Rules heading, this opens up a test area on the right. Again you can rename the rule by clicking on the pencil icon.

In the text area on the right type in the rule you would like to use in the following format:

IF Condition Then Action

IF Condition AND Condition2 Then Action

The Condition will always be using the key word Age() with mathematical symbols used to define the range from below:

Symbol	Explanation

Symbol	Explanation
=	equals
!=	not equal to
<	less than
>	greater than
>=	greater than or equal to
<=	less than or equal to

The Action will be in the following format: UpdatePayRate([Name Of Reference Value])

Example 1: Employees Aged less than and equal to 20 will be assigned the reference value RefValueName

IF 
Age() <= 20 
THEN 
UpdatePayRate("RefValueName")

Example 2: Employees Aged between 20 and 25(inclusive) will be assigned the reference value RefValueName

IF 
Age() >= 20 AND Age() <= 25
THEN 
UpdatePayRate("RefValueName")

After writing in the rule, click outside the text area and it should go green indicated by a tick. You can make more rules under the same award for different Age ranges or reference values. Make sure the Age ranges don’t overlap.

Save the award by clicking on the save icon on the top left or using ctrl + s.
Use the validation Check as mentioned below

Updating Awards:

Click on the award to update
Click the rule you want to update and change it to cater for the new scenario or add a new rule to an existing award for new Age ranges.
Use the validation check below after saving.

Validation Checks:

Make sure the award you would like to validate is saved.
Click on the “Enter test data“ button and enter in the Age ranges you would like to validate.

Click the Green “Run Test“ button.
If there is a critical error in the rules then you should see the “Invalid rule method“ pop-up on the right-hand side of the screen and nothing will show in the right column of the screen.
1. This just means that you would need to double check that the format of the rules matches the format expected as shown in the “Creating a New Award” section above.

If there is no critical error in the rules then there should be a table on the right with the results which should look like this: This will show the pay rate assigned at the different ages.

The table will also tell you if there is an issue with the reference value name that you have used in the rule. This will need to be fixed by correcting the rule with the correct name for the reference value.

Assigning the award to employees:

Make sure that the award is working and set up properly via using the validation above.
The award can be assigned to the following scopes - Company, Pay Group, Employee Group, Employee
Click on the “Awards“ button corresponding with the scope you would like to assign the award to e.g. for Employee groups, Click the “Awards“ button under the Employee group tab.

Select the Award you would like to assign from the right-hand side and click the small arrow.

From the pop-up select the date you would like it to be effective from and save.

The awards should start working for those employees in the group.

Using the Feature

Automatic Pay Rate Updates:
- After the award has been assigned to employees, The award will start running for each sequential pay run created and will start updating the pay rate of employees that have their birthdays in the pay run period range.
Notifications and Alerts:

For every pay run that is created with awards active - You should see some warnings in the errors and warnings report.

If the award is successful you will see the following warning with the list of employees that were updated. In the case of number of employees needing an update, you will not see any warning message.

If there is an issue with the name of a particular reference value, then you will see a warning message stating the name of the reference value - in this case the employees that would have been updated using this reference value will not be updated.

If there is a critical error with the award, then you will see a warning message saying that the award ran into an issue - in most cases this will be due to the format of the rule not being correct so make sure that is correct before assign the award as mentioned above.

Audit Trails:
- The updated pay rate will show up under the employee details screen with the audit.

5. Troubleshooting and FAQs

Common Issues:
- Reference value names being incorrect - make sure to use reference value name and not description and use the validator.
- Age ranges over lapping between rules - make sure there is no overlap as that will result in which ever rule is run first changing the pay rate which might not be intended.
FAQs:
- How does the system handle retroactive age updates?
  - The system does not retroactively correct pay rates for employees - it only updates employees if their next birthday falls in the newly created pay runs pay period and there is a rule defined with an age range that covers the employees new age. With all retroactive pay rate changes manual calculation in a manual payrun should be considered for the backpay.
- What happens if award conditions change mid-cycle?
  - The award conditions are run at the time of the pay run creation so it will take the conditions active at that time. Changing the conditions/rules will take into affect the next time you make a pay run.

6. Best Practices

Understand Relevant Awards
- Thoroughly analyse age-based wage requirements in employment awards to ensure compliance with Fair Work Australia standards.
Stay Updated
- Regularly and or periodically review legislative updates to incorporate changes in pay rate structures or award conditions.
Audit Rules
- Leverage audit reports to monitor and remain compliant.