(HR 6201) Emergency Family and Medical Leave (E-FMLA)#

HR 6201 Overview #

New Legislation may necessitate setup of both a Temporary Expansion of FMLA and an Emergency Sick Leave. The Legislation is expected to go into effect on April 1, 2020, and apply until December 31, 2020.

Clients should determine how to comply with this legislation and then NEOGOV can assist them with different configuration options.

To learn more, please read the Legislative Bill .

This document covers the setup of Temporary Expansion of Family and Medical Leave.

Expansion of Family and Medical Leave#

Overview #

The approach to this requirement is to set up new pay components to pay and track these values in order to capture the amounts for tax credit (if applicable).
 
A leave bank is not required for this approach however, if the client determines that the leaves due qualify for regular FMLA then it can optionally link the E-FMAL time codes to the FMLA bank.

• Small businesses will fund this program and they will be refunded through tax credits. Therefore, we must track these payments in special components. 
• Employer needs to protect the employee’s job for 12 week period. 
• 2 weeks unpaid which an employee can elect to use accumulated leave time and 10 weeks paid under this program not using accumulated leave.
  • This is standard leave processing.  10 days of LWOP unless the employee elects to use their accruals.
• After the 10 day period, the employee will be paid up to two-thirds of their regular rate at the employees normally scheduled time.  This amount is capped at $200 per day up to a maximum of $10,000 in total.
  • $200 X 5 days X 10 weeks = $10,000
    

Note – if an employee 2/3 of their normal rate is $150 / day, it appears that they will still only receive 10 weeks and never hit the maximum of $10,000.   Therefore, in this example, the YTD aggregate (maximum) will vary by the employee.

Example: $150 X 5 days x 10 weeks = $7,500 aggregate maximum. 

This configuration is based on capping the employee’s hours to 80, which in turn will cap the aggregate $ maximum.

• A payroll UserCalc is required to calculate the capped wage rate and populate the earnings pay component accordingly.

SetUp #

New User Variables (IMVR)#

• 2/3 RATE to be used in IPPC rate calculation
• E-FMLA D-CAP for the daily maximum of $200
• E-FMLA MAX for the total benefit of $10,000 which may be recalculated by the UserCalc. 

New Pay Components (IPPC) #

Clients can use their own coding and naming conventions.  Be sure to change the pay components on the UserCalc to your codes.   

• E-FLMA Hours (in this example 456) – all calculations are based on HOURS.
• E-FLMA Earnings (PC 1456)
• E-FLMA EE Max (PC 9456) info only
  • Calculation Method – EV X Rate X UVar
    • EV = Temp FLMA Hours
    • Rate = employee standard rate of pay
    • UVar = 2/3 RATE to calculate 2/3’s of normal rate of pay

Set up the proper GL coding (IDGA/IPPC)#

• No sample coding is provided as it is client specific.

Update all required elements (IPPE)   #

Hint: Run the RPPE report and search for Reg $, these elements would most likely be the ones where we have to add the E-FMLA Earnings PC. 

• Do not include the earnings into FICA-ER elements as these earnings are not subject to employer portion of FICA.

New time code (IDTC) - E-FLMA HRS #

•  Be sure to go back to IPPC for PC 456 and update the time code.

New UserCalc (IMUC) - PR User Calc TEMP FMLA #

• Downloadable copy of usercalc set up - E-FMLA_USERCALC.xlsx

• Applies the daily maximum of $200 and total benefit. 
• Recalculates the earnings based on the capped rate.
• Issue UPCALC exception messages when daily or maximum cap reached. 
• A Payroll UserCalc is required as there are no PC’s rules apply this type of maximum. 
• Before adding the UserCalc lines, please set up the UserCalc variables (E-FMLA Variables tab in the spreadsheet)  
  • Qualification – UserCalc lines < 100$
    • Only execute the UserCalc if the employee has hours in PC 456.
    • Check the YTD max, if GT or EQ to $10,000 exit.
  • Calculate the capped daily rate (lines 100)
    • Calculate the employee’s daily rate at 75% (value in PC 1456)
    • Move the lessor of the calculated daily rate or $200 into a variable.
  • Calculate the employee’s aggregate maximum. (lines 200)
    • Take the capped daily rate X 5 days per week X 10 weeks into a variable
    • Let the aggregate maximum be the lessor of the calculated value or the cap of $10,000.
    • Store the calculated maximum into PC 9456.
  • Perform the period maximum cap.  (lines 300)
    •  Take the total value of Temp FLMA Hours (PC 456) and divide by the employee’s standard hours per day.  This will give us the number of Temp FLMA Days.
    •  Multiply Temp FLMA Days X the employee’s daily rate that has already been capped above(DY RATE CAPPED).  
    • Round up the value to 0.01 and store back into the TEMP FLSA $.
  • At this point in the UserCalc, we have the current value to be paid to the employee but we must add the current value to the YTD value to see if this pay puts the employee over the aggregate maximum. Lines 400, 500 and 1000.
    • Check the YTD value of PC 1456, if equal to/greater than 10,000 or the employee’s specific maximum, then zero out PC 456 and 1456, issued a warning message in UPCALC and exit.
    • Calculate the employee’s true YTD = current value plus the value in the YTD history. 
  • If greater/equal to the EE AGG CAP, then reduce the current payment to the value that will take the employee to the cap and issue a message.
  • If below the cap, populate PC 1456 FMLA $ and exit.

Update Pay Point (IPPP)#

• Add the UserCalc to your Pay Point sets. 
• The example below shows Pay Point Type of 50 on the Regular Pay set.  It can be at any type before legislative tax calculation.
• Be sure to add it to each required Pay Point Set.

UPCALC Exception Messages #

• HR-6201a - Employee's daily rate capped at $200
  
  • No user action required.  The employee’s daily rate was capped at $200.
• HR-6201b - Employee's YTD $ capped at a maximum.  This should be the last payment.
  • No user action required. 
• HR-6201c - Employee has previously reached the maximum for Temporary FMLA benefit
  • Ensure the employee does not have any values in PCs 456 or 1456.  

Note: UPCALC exception report will have exceptions messages generated by the UserCalc if the daily maximum or aggregate maximum has been reached. All messages are pre-fixed using HR-6201, the user can open the UPCALC exception report and search for‘HR-6201’.   Or an ad hoc report can be written to report run logs that contain ‘HR-6201’.

Sample Test Scenarios #

• First pay that employee goes on TEMP FMLA (with LWOP and/or SICK)
• Employee is limited to the daily maximum $200. 
  • Have an employee making over $200 / day
  • Test an employee making under $200 / day.  Note the aggregate maximum will also be under $10,000 and stored into PC 9456. 
• Employee that reaches the aggregate maximum $10,000 in the current pay
• Employee that has reached the maximum $10,000 from the previous pay
• Test for a FT and PT employee.
  

Sample Configuration #

Please note this is not the complete set up required.  For example, the Pay Component GL (Acct/Arrears tab) needs to be configured but is not included in these samples. 

STEP 1: User Variables (IMVR)
Set up the User Variables

• 2/3 Rate Variable

• D-CAP Variable

• Temporary Max

STEP 2: Pay Components (IPPC)

• Three PCs required

• Extended FMLA Earnings Pay Component

• Extended FMLA Hours Pay Component

• Employers Max Earn for Extended FMLA

STEP 3: Time Code on (IDTC)

• Time Code for Extended FMLA

STEP 4: Set up the UserCalc on (IMUC)

• Please see the UserCalc Spreadsheet for details.
• Pay Point for Temporary FMLA

STEP 5: Pay Point (IPPP)

• Pay Point for Temporary FMLA