Some shifts qualify for a different rate of pay, perhaps depending on the time of day (e.g. after 9pm), the day of the year (e.g. a public holiday), the shift type (e.g. a duty manager shift), or perhaps for any overtime worked (e.g. after 40 hours).
Pay rules make this possible. You can optionally add approval criteria too, so a pay rule only applies to a worked shift if someone manually approves.
👀 Have a watch of our Spotlight Session 'Perfecting pay rules' for more information.
Configuring pay rules
Click Settings
Click Pay rules
❗️ Pay rules are a really powerful way of controlling the pay rates that apply and under what conditions. Changes to your pay rules can be made by the Rotaready Support team only, just reach out.
Rule periods
Pay rules are time-boxed into rule periods. A rule period is simply a group of pay rules that apply for a certain period of time. If your organisation changes their pay policy, for example, you should create a new rule period and choose the date that it becomes effective from. You can do this ahead of time, so as future-dated shifts are scheduled your new pay rules apply.
Each rule period can contain any number of pay rules. A rule encapsulates a particular pay policy and a set of eligibility criteria against which shifts are compared.
⚡️ When a shift is created or updated, Rotaready will identify the correct rule period based on the date of the shift. It then checks the shift against each rule in the period, in descending order. If the shift meets the eligibility criteria for a rule, the pay rule matches and is applied.
❗️ If you introduce a pay rule period retrospectively or modify existing pay rules, shifts that have already been created will be unaffected (unless someone happens to edit them). Just let us know you'd like any existing shifts to be refreshed against amended pay rules.
Shift-specific vs threshold
A pay rule can be applied in two different scenarios:
Shift-specific: this is assigned based on the components of a specific shift (e.g. when a shift type, time, or day requires an alternative rate)
Threshold: this is assigned when someone works over a set threshold (e.g. when someone works over 40 hours in a week which requires an alternative rate)
These different pay rule types can be used in conjunction with each other and allow you to capture alternative rates in a number of scenarios.
Scheduled vs overtime
A pay rule is made up of two components:
Scheduled: this controls what pay rate applies for the planned duration of the shift.
Overtime: this controls what pay rate applies before a shift's start time or after a shift's finish time. These periods of time are identified automatically when Rotaready marries-up a shift with a clock-in and a clock-out.
Using this, you can ensure someone is paid at their basic rate for the scheduled duration and paid at an enhanced rate for the overtime duration.
The pay element types that appear, such as Basic pay or night rate, are customised to your organisation and can be managed in pay element types.
✅ Don't forget, your organisation's sanitisation rules will always apply first. These will adjust, round or trim the actual start or finish time accordingly. Only then will pay rules work its magic.
✅ If a certain pay type is deemed to apply (as per your scheduled or overtime component) but the employee does not have a matching pay record of that type, their Basic Pay record will be used as a fall-back.
Approval
As you know, Rotaready will apply the correct pay rule to a shift automatically. This happens when the shift is scheduled. When the shift is worked, however, things change. This is because someone may work different hours to what was scheduled, triggering the overtime component of the pay rule.
By enabling approval on a pay rule, the overtime component won't apply unless it's approved. This takes place in the attendance section, right next to the early clock-in or the late clock-out that triggered it. It'll also appear as an attendance issue.
You can optionally add an auto-approval criteria, which is useful for catching the minor discrepancies, leaving you to focus on the bigger ones.
Example scenarios
If you are applying an alternative rate (e.g. other than an employee's basic pay rate) to a particular shift or scenario, then you will need to create the relevant pay element type to assign to the rule first.
Rule 1 (shift-specific)
On the 14th February (Valentine's Day) employees working retail shifts get paid their '2x basic rate' pay element type.
Create a new rule like so:
Click Add rule on the relevant rule period
Give it a useful name, such as Valentine's Day 2x pay
Select the shift-specific pay rule type
Pick All sites because we want this rule to apply everywhere.
Check every day of the week (the 14th February is likely to fall on a different day each year, so let's ensure every day remains eligible for now)
Check the date checkbox and add 14th Feb this year. Now's a good time to add 14th Feb for the next few years as well.
Ignore the time criteria, we don't need it.
Pick the shift type that corresponds to a retail shift. This way other kinds of work won't be eligible.
Ignore the approval option, or match it with your organisation's default overtime approval rule (e.g. 15 minute auto-approval)
Add the Scheduled pay rate component by clicking Add pay rate, selecting the relevant pay element type that you've already created prior to building the rule (e.g. 2x basic rate).
Secondly, repeat the above step again but choose Overtime instead of Scheduled (though this should be pre-selected). This ensures the same policy continues to apply if someone works above and beyond their scheduled hours.
Rule 2 (shift-specific)
If someone works between midnight and 5am on any day of the week in the Warehouse, pay them their 'night rate' pay element type.
Create a new rule like so:
Click Add rule on the relevant rule period
Give it a useful name, such as Warehouse night pay
Select the shift-specific pay rule type
Pick only the Warehouse site, as we don't want this to apply everywhere
Check every day of the week.
Ignore the date criteria, it's not needed.
The time criteria is used to capture shifts that start between two times, which isn't what we need for this example. We want to target the portion of a shift between midnight and 5am, so ignore this option.
Pick All shift types.
Add the scheduled pay rate component by clicking Add pay rate, selecting the relevant pay element type that you've already created prior to building the rule (e.g. night rate). Then check the box to Cap this pay rate and enter 00:00 to 05:00. This ensures employees receive their night rate between those times. They'll receive their basic rate outside of those times.
Secondly, repeat the above step again but choose Overtime instead of Scheduled (though this should be pre-selected). This ensures the same policy continues to apply if someone works above and beyond their scheduled hours.
Rule 3 (threshold)
If someone works more than 40 hours in a week, pay them their 'overtime rate' pay element type.
Create a new rule like so:
Click Add rule on the relevant rule period
Give it a useful name, such as Overtime pay
Select the Threshold pay rule type
Pick All sites because we want this rule to apply everywhere.
Select the Hours per week threshold type
Set the Threshold value to 40
Add the pay rate component by clicking Add pay rate, selecting the relevant pay element type that you've already created prior to building the rule (e.g. overtime rate).
Once a threshold pay rule is in place, we'll highlight to you on the rota editor if you have scheduled someone to whom the rule applies to (e.g. they have been scheduled more than 40 hours).