Guide to pay spines
A pay spine is a structure that outlines the salary or pay grades within an organisation. Each pay spine contains a number of pay grades, each pay grade can contain as many spine points as needed. Each spine point can be assigned an effective date. This allows you to backdate changes to pay grades or enter them in advance of a pay award.
Example...
Each pay spine contains spine points and pay grades, the pay grades use a range of spine points.
Before you begin
A pay spine (sometimes known as a pay band) allows an employee to step through spine points when assigned a pay grade. You can create as many spines as you need, within the pay spine we set up the spine points. This is the source of information used by the pay spine for the pay grades. The pay grades then contain a range of spine points or steps for the employee to move within that pay grade.
Effective date
The key to using multiple pay grades and spine point tables is the effective date . The benefits of setting an effective date allows more complex pay spines to be updated in advance. However there are some things to consider.
Grade effective date
When creating a pay spine, the Grade Effective Date sets the pay grade in use for the employee. The payroll will look at the Effective Date for each pay grade and if the Grade Effective Date is on or after the Effective Date, that's the pay grade used.
However, any pay grades with a later effective date is ignored until you set the Grade Effective Date to the later Effective Date.
The payroll date does not choose the pay grade or pay spine in use. Its driven by the various effective dates.
Example
A Pay grade 1 has been set with an effective date of 01/01/2024. There are some changes to the pay grade starting from 1st August. This has been added to Pay Grades by selecting +Create New Date .
Employees on this pay spine get the pay grade with a Grade Effective Date of 01/01/2024 even if the payroll date is after the 1st August date.
Until the Grade Effective Date is set to 01/08/2024 the pay grade with an effective date of 01/01/2024 will continue to be used.
To start using the pay grade with an effective date of 01/08/2024 the Grade Effective Date is set to on or after 01/08/2024.
Related topics: