Understanding Salary Plan Compensation Defaults

You specify a worker's salary administration plan, labor agreement, grade, and step on the Job Data - Salary Plan page. When you hire a worker or make a change to his or her Job record, the system enters default salary plan information in the Job record or leaves the salary plan fields blank for manual entry. The source of the default compensation depends on the way you set up salary plan defaults, the nature of the job change, or both.

Use the LOCATION_TABLE component interface to load data into the tables for these component interfaces.

You can assign default salary plans, grades, and steps to a worker in one or a combination of the following ways:

  • Associate the salary plan with a location on the Location Profile Page.

  • Associate the salary plan with a job code on the Default Compensation Page.

    If there is no salary plan associated with the location entered on the Work Location Page, the system will enter the salary plan (and step and grade, if applicable) associated with the job code you enter on the Job Information Page.

  • Assign a salary plan directly to a worker on the Job Data - Salary Plan Page.

    You can enter a salary plan directly on the Job Data - Salary Plan page if there is a job code associated with the selected location or job code. You can also override any defaulted salary plan, step, or grade values.

  • Associate a salary plan with a labor agreement on the Categorization Defaults Page.

  • Associate a salary plan with a labor agreement directly to a worker on the Job Data - Salary Plan Page.

The system verifies that the combination of salary plan, steps, and grades that you enter in the Job Data component is valid and exists in the system. If the combination does not exist, the system issues a warning message.

Note: If you want to use the Default Pay Components functionality to automatically enter step component rates in Job Data, select the Multi-step Grade option on the HCM Options Page.

The system enters default values into the step components and other compensation fields when you click the Default Pay Components button. Only salary plan information defaults when you make a change to the job or location fields.

Salary Administration Plan Defaulting at Hire

The system enters the following salary administration plan when you hire a worker:

  • If you have associated a salary administration plan with the location selected on the Job Data - Work Location page, the system will enter the salary plan on the Job Data - Salary Plan page.

  • If you have associated a salary administration plan with the job code selected on the Job Data - Job Information page and not associated a salary plan with the selected location, the system will enter the salary plan (grade and step, if applicable) on the Job Data - Salary Plan page and leave the compensation information fields blank and available for entry.

  • If you have a salary administration plan associated with both the location and the job code, the system will use the default value associated with the selected location.

  • If you have not associated a salary administration plan with either the location or job code, the system will leave the salary plan, grade, and step fields available for entry.

  • You may override the default salary administration plan values, provided that the new values are valid.

Note: If you have not associated a salary administration plan with either the location or job code, but have associated a base rate code with the job code, the system will insert the base rate code information when you click the Default Components button on the Job Data - Compensation page.

Salary Administration Plan Defaulting After Hire

The system enters the following default information when you enter a new location in the Job record of an existing worker:

  • If there is a salary plan associated with the new location, the system checks the existing grade and step values against the grade and step values of the salary plan.

    If the grade and step are valid for the new location's salary plan, the system enters the new salary plan on the Job Data - Salary Plan page.

  • If the grade and step are not valid for the new location's salary plan, the system leaves the existing salary plan value. This ensures that the worker is not inadvertently left without a compensation plan.

    If you want to change the grade and step as a part of your update, you must change the salary plan to one that includes the new grade and step.

The system enters the following information when you enter a new job code in the Job record of an existing worker:

  • If there is a salary plan associated with the new job code and not with the location code, the system enters the salary plan, grade, and step information associated with the job code.

  • The system does not enter the base rate code associated with the new job code but inserts the default compensation data from the previous data row.

    Note: When you click the Default Pay Components button, the system does not insert into an existing Job record the base rate code information associated with the new job code. It only inserts this information when you create a new Job record (that is, when you hire a worker).