If Your Job Becomes Non-exempt

Be assured, this change in no way reflects your work or your value to the University. On the contrary, the University continues to value the professional manner in which you do your job and the many contributions you make to the success of this institution. Please know, the University is required to make these changes to comply with these new Federal regulations.

If your position classification is changed to non-exempt:

• To comply with the Federal regulations, you will transition to a biweekly (every other week) payroll and will receive 26 paychecks each year. All non-exempt SSU staff members must be paid biweekly to comply with University System of Georgia and Savannah State University policy.
• In ten months of the year, your two biweekly checks will provide only 12/13ths as much gross pay in your biweekly checks as compared to your regular monthly checks. However, two months of the year, you will receive three paychecks, thus your annual salary remains the same after this change.
• During this transition, because non-exempt staff may earn overtime, there will be a lag between the end of the biweekly pay period and receiving the paycheck; this is so all worked hours can be calculated properly.
• To minimize the financial impact caused by this transition and gap in pay, SSU has been authorized to provide a one-time opportunity for staff to be paid for a limited amount of their unused annual leave. We are encouraging staff to consider this possibility in managing their annual leave balances until the implementation of the FLSA transition. More details will follow.
• You will need to report hours worked in SSU's ADP time reporting system.
• You will be eligible for overtime whenever it has been approved by your immediate supervisor and you work more than 40 hours per week. Please note, your department has the option of offering compensatory time in lieu of paid overtime.

Other items important to note:

• Other SSU benefits and your retirement plan will remain unchanged. A very few employees with faculty privileges will have a change in leave accrual, depending upon their years of service. Those employees will be notified.
• Your health and welfare benefits (insurance, etc.) deductions will be spread evenly over the first two biweekly pay dates that typically occur each month. Other deductions will be taken based on the regular biweekly deduction schedule.

You should plan for a transition period between your last exempt or monthly paycheck and your first non-exempt paycheck, and you should review the timing and amount of automatic withdrawals from your bank account for items like car and mortgage payments since the amount in your bank account will vary with your biweekly payments.

FLSA at SSU

SSU Human Resources has been working with campus senior leadership to implement the new FLSA federal regulatory changes with the least amount of impact possible. A campus steering group has been working with Human Resources to oversee the implementation process and ensure that the campus approach is consistent with the University System of Georgia policies for the FLSA regulatory change. This change, which SSU intends to implement by November 1, 2016, will affect approximately one-third of SSU staff members.

Under the new DOL regulations, SSU staff whose duties do not qualify for an FLSA exemption and make less than $913 per week ($47,476 full-time annually) will be classified as non-exempt. With this change, these staff members must report their hours worked on a weekly basis and are eligible for overtime pay if they exceed 40 worked hours in a week. Due to University System of Georgia and Savannah State University payroll procedure requirements, these staff members will receive payment on a biweekly (every other week) basis.

Staff who are moved to non-exempt classifications will follow the ADP procedures established by their units to monitor time and reporting their time by the established deadline for their pay period.

For more on the implementation at SSU, visit SSU's FLSA Strategy and Timeline page.