Multiple Jobs and Base Benefits
Some of the issues regarding the PeopleSoft Human Resources Base Benefits business process and multiple jobs are:
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Which job is the worker's main, or primary, job?
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Which jobs do you look at for benefits eligibility, and how should they be evaluated?
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Which jobs are used for calculating deductions and contributions?
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How are the deductions or contributions calculated?
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When do you take deductions and when do you apply credits?
Designate the Primary Job for Benefits
You may want to base a worker's eligibility for benefits on a single job. This is called the primary job (not to be confused with the primary job for PeopleSoft Human Resources reporting purposes). The system also uses the primary job to associate payroll deductions for benefits with a specific job. Each benefit record number (group of jobs) that you designate for a worker has one job designated as the primary job.
When you create a job record for a person, the system flags that job as primary based on rules that you have set up. This flag is stored in the Primary Jobs Flag page (BN_PRIJOBS_MAINT). As you create other Job Data records for a person, the system turns this flag on or off based on the rules that you have established.
For example, here is what the Primary Job Flag page would look like for an employee who is a professor and dean at a university and a doctor at the university hospital:
| Job Title | Employee Record Number | Benefit Record | Primary Job? |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Professor |
0 |
0 |
Yes |
|
Dean |
1 |
0 |
No |
|
Physician |
2 |
1 |
No |
The primary job flag is used throughout the system to:
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Determine when a deduction should be taken.
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Identify the job that will provide the service date and the termination date.
The designation of a worker's primary job is effective-dated and can be changed anytime from a data maintenance page. Also, because the action of starting a new, concurrent job or terminating an existing job usually affects the determination of the worker's primary job, you can define rules that redesignate the primary job when one of these job actions is entered into the system.
For other actions (such as a job moving from full-time to part-time status), you can also indicate whether the system sends a work list entry to the Benefits Administrator through PeopleSoft Workflow for review.
Group Jobs to Determine Benefit Eligibility
When workers hold multiple jobs, they may be eligible for different offerings of benefits, based on the combination or mix of the jobs that they hold. Conversely, they may be eligible for certain offerings based solely on the fact that they hold a particular job.
Multiple jobs introduce the concept of a benefit record number. If an worker is eligible for multiple sets of benefits (or possibly multiple benefit programs), then you enroll the worker in those benefits according to the set of benefits that corresponds to a grouping of one or more jobs. The benefit record number is the mechanism that is used to group concurrent jobs for benefits eligibility and enrollment purposes.
All enrollments for benefits are specific to a benefit record number.
Maximum Number of Concurrent Jobs
A worker can hold a maximum of 50 concurrent jobs across all benefit record numbers. PeopleSoft Payroll for North America can process only 50 benefit record numbers on one paycheck.
Calculate Benefit Deductions
The same grouping method that is used to determine eligibility can be used to calculate deductions. You can group jobs to calculate a deduction that is based on the worker's salary. Typically this involves calculating coverage and related premiums for Life and Disability plans that are based on the worker's salary or compensation rate. You calculate the coverage and deduction based on:
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The salary of the primary job.
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The summed salaries from a group of jobs.
When you designate the primary job for a benefit record, the system ties all deductions for the benefits that are associated with this benefit record to this job. Benefits deductions are taken only from checks by which the associated primary job is paid. This assures that deductions are taken at the proper frequency when the individual jobs in a group are paid on different frequencies or on separate checks.
When jobs are combined into a single check for all benefits record numbers, the benefits deduction for the different benefit record numbers is printed as separate detail lines.
Apply Regulatory Contribution Limits
When applying regulatory limits to contributions for savings plans, the system takes into account all earnings and deductions that the worker has across multiple jobs, not just the job or jobs that are associated with the plan that is being limited.
The Retro Deduction and Imputed Income Adjustment processes reevaluate deductions over a specified period of time. Using the current state of the database (benefit and general deduction enrollments, job history and primary job assignment), the system recalculates deductions and compares them to the deductions that were originally calculated and taken.
The primary job indicators play an important role in the calculation of deductions. If changes are made to the primary job history that affect confirmed pay periods, and these changes involve a shift of pay frequencies, then the system might calculate a different deduction amount for this period than it originally calculated. During Retro Deduction and Imputed Income Adjustment processing, the system drives the calculation off the primary job history for the adjustment period.
Percent of Gross Deduction Limits
Calculation rules can be set up with a percent of gross limit applied to a benefit deduction. Also, rate tables can specify the portion of a deduction that is subject to this percent of gross limit. Now that earnings from multiple jobs with different benefit record numbers can be combined into a single check, this can result in a different gross earnings amount being calculated than when these jobs were not combined into a single check.
When applying the Percent of Gross limit to a deduction, the system uses the entire gross earnings from the check, as opposed to just the gross earnings that are attributable to the jobs with the same benefit record number as the enrollment for the deduction that is being limited. This can result in different deduction amounts being calculated than were previously calculated.