Guarantees Plus Rule

The Guarantees Plus Rule is used to ensure that employees are paid for a minimum amount each day, week, or pay period. When guaranteeing time, the rule pays a premium to employees who do not work enough to earn the minimum amount. When guaranteeing money, the rule pays a premium to employees who earn less than the minimum amount that they are owed.

Technical Details

com.workbrain.app.ta.quickrules.ConsolidatedGuaranteesRule

Overview

The Guarantees Plus Rule can be configured to ensure a minimum amount of pay on a daily, weekly, or pay period basis.

You define what time on an employee's timesheet is considered work, based on the time code, hour type, or minimum or maximum duration. The rule can count both work details and premiums towards the guaranteed time or money.

The rule does not pay any premiums if an employee does not record any work on their timesheet or does not perform any clock punches during the guarantee period. In this way, employees who do not record any work are not paid premiums up to their guaranteed minimum.

The rule can be configured to pay premiums against specific time codes, hour types, and labor metrics. Alternatively, the rule can allocate the premium proportionally against any of these attributes.

Guaranteed Time

When guaranteeing time, the rule is used to pay premiums to employees who do not work a specified minimum amount of time.

The rule can be configured to guarantee a specific duration that is the same for every employee. The rule can derive the guaranteed time from the employee's schedule or from an employee UDF or employee value field, which can differ between employees. The guaranteed time can be further adjusted by specifying a multiplier or subtracting a number of minutes from the derived duration.

After the rule has determined the amount of eligible time during the day, week, or pay period, the rule compares this value to the guaranteed time. The rule pays the employee a premium if the amount of eligible time is less than the guaranteed time. The premium's duration is the difference between the eligible time and the guaranteed time. For example, if an employee is guaranteed at least three hours of work each day, but is sent home early and only works two hours, the rule pays the employee a one hour premium.

Guaranteed Money

When guaranteeing money, the rule is used to pay premiums to employees who earn less than the minimum amount that they are owed.

The rule can be configured to calculate a guaranteed monetary amount based on a state minimum wage, an employee value field, or an explicit rate. The specified rate is then multiplied by the calculated guarantee minutes.

Employees can be guaranteed the amount of time they worked plus an additional amount of "bonus time" that gets added on. For example, some state wage and hour laws provide employees with an extra provisional "bonus hour" of pay under certain work situations (for example, split shifts). Specifically, the laws require that employees who work under these predefined conditions are paid at least a monetary amount equal to the total amount of hours worked at the minimum wage plus one bonus hour paid at the minimum wage. If the employee earns monies in excess of the minimum wage rate, those additional earnings can be used to offset the extra amount that is owed to the employee.

After the rule has determined the minimum amount of money that is owed to an employee, the rule compares this value to the amount the employee has earned. The rule pays the employee a premium if the amount the employee has earned is less than the amount they are owed. For example, an employee is guaranteed a minimum wage of $10.00 an hour plus an additional paid hour for a split shift. If the employee works four hours in the morning and four hours in the evening at $10.25 an hour, they earned $82.00, but are owed $90.00. In this case, an $8.00 premium is paid.

Configuration

The behavior of the Guarantees Plus Rule is based on the values of the related parameters.

Rule Parameters

Parameters marked with an asterisk (*) are required.

Guarantee Eligibility parameters

These parameters define which work details and premiums are considered eligible and to be included when the rule counts the amount of work an employee received.

Parameter Description Valid Values
*Time Codes Select time codes which make work details or premiums eligible. The rule counts any work details or premiums with one of the specified time codes towards the amount of work an employee received when determining if the employee is owed a premium. Any valid time code
Hour Types Select hour types which make work details or premiums eligible. The rule counts any work details or premiums with one of the specified hour types towards the amount of work an employee received when determining if the employee is owed a premium. Any valid hour type
Jobs Select the jobs which make work details or premiums eligible. The rule counts any work details or premiums with one of the specified jobs towards the amount of work an employee received when determining if the employee is owed a premium. Any valid job
Departments Select the departments which make work details or premiums eligible. The rule counts any work details or premiums with one of the specified departments towards the amount of work an employee received when determining if the employee is owed a premium. Any valid department
Projects Select the projects which make work details or premiums eligible. The rule counts any work details or premiums with one of the specified projects towards the amount of work an employee received when determining if the employee is owed a premium. Any valid project
Dockets Select the dockets which make work details or premiums eligible. The rule counts any work details or premiums with one of the specified dockets towards the amount of work an employee received when determining if the employee is owed a premium. Any valid docket
Quantity is Greater Than or Equal To Specify a numeric value to configure the rule to count work details or premiums as eligible only if their quantity value is greater than or equal to the specified value. Any numeric value
Quantity is Less Than or Equal To Specify a numeric value to configure the rule to count work details or premiums as eligible only if their quantity value is less than or equal to the specified value. Any numeric value
Teams Select the teams which make work details or premiums eligible. The rule counts any work details or premiums with one of the specified teams towards the amount of work an employee received when determining if the employee is owed a premium. Any valid team
Minimum Detail Duration Specify the minimum duration, in minutes, a work detail or premium must be to be eligible. The rule only counts work details or premiums that are at least the specified duration toward the amount of work an employee received when determining if the employee is owed a premium. Any positive integer, representing minutes
Maximum Detail Duration Specify the maximum duration, in minutes, a work detail or premium can be and still be eligible. The rule only counts work details or premiums that are equal or less than the specified duration toward the amount of work an employee received when determining if the employee is owed a premium. Any positive integer, representing minutes
Deduct Breaks from Schedule Duration This parameter indicates whether to exclude break minutes from the schedule duration. Select one of these options:
  • No: Includes breaks in the schedule duration. This is the default.
  • Unpaid Breaks: Excludes unpaid breaks from the schedule duration.
  • All Breaks: Excludes all breaks from the schedule duration.

For example, an employee is scheduled from 8:00 to 15:30 with a scheduled break from 12:00 to 12:30. By default, the break is included in the schedule duration, so the rule uses a duration of 7.5 hours in its calculations. If you configure the rule to exclude the break from the schedule duration, the rule would instead use a duration of 7 hours.

 One of the drop-down list selections
Type of Eligible Detail Select whether the rule examines work details, premiums, or both, when calculating the amount of work an employee received.

When you select Premium or Both, the Consider independent occurrences parameter is not used.

One of the drop-down list selections
* Guarantee Period This parameter controls whether the rule guarantees hours on a daily, weekly, or pay period basis. Select one of these options:
  • Day: Configure the rule to guarantee hours on a daily basis. Hours are guaranteed for each work summary day.
  • Week: Configure the rule to guarantee hours on a weekly basis. When this option is selected, guarantee premiums are applied at the end of the week. The Day Week Starts parameter controls on which day the weekly guarantee is reset and begins accumulating eligible work details and premiums for the week. If this option is selected, the rule should be configured to only fire on the last day of the week. For example, if the rule is configured with Monday as the day the week starts, with the Is Day Condition set to Sunday, then the rule only fires on Sunday. Also, set the Auto Recalc setting to ENTIRE WEEK in the Quick Rule Editor for any calculation group to which the rule is applied.
  • Pay Period: Configure the rule to guarantee hours on a pay period basis. When this option is selected, guarantee premiums are applied at the end of the pay period. The rule should be configured to only fire on the last day of the pay period. Also, set the Auto Recalc setting to ENTIRE PAY PERIOD and the Recalculation Period setting to TILL END OF CURRENT PAY PERIOD in the Quick Rule Editor for any calculation group to which the rule is applied.

When Week or Pay Period option is selected, the Consider independent occurrences and Ignore time codes when considering independent occurrences parameters are disabled.

One of the drop-down list selections
Populate Time Fields This parameter controls whether to populate the Start Time and End Time fields of the generated premium on the timesheet. The parameter is used to support the case in which an employee is considered to "still" be on the clock for the purposes of compensation despite having concluded their work day.

When selected, the Start Time and End Time fields of the generated premium are populated. The start time is equal to the end time of the last eligible work detail (as per the rule's eligibility configuration values). The end time is equal to this calculated start time plus the calculated duration.

Note: The rule does not support the ability to set start/end times before eligible work segments. The guaranteed times, when present, will always immediately follow the last end time of eligible work details. Details considered ineligible by the rule are not considered when determining the start time of the guaranteed time.

When cleared, the Start Time and End Time fields of the generated premium are not populated. This is the default.

This parameter is only used when the Guarantee Period parameter is set to Day and the Guarantee Type parameter is set to Time.

 Selected or cleared
Day Week Starts Select the day on which the weekly guarantee period starts:
  • Application Default: The rule uses the value of the DAY_WEEK_STARTS registry parameter.
  • Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday.

This parameter is only used when the Guarantee Period is set to Week.

One of the drop-down list selections
Guarantee Type Select whether the rule guarantees a minimum amount of time or money:
  • Time: Configure the rule to guarantee a minimum amount of time. This is the default.
  • Money: Configure the rule to guarantee a minimum amount of money. Select one of these options:
    • Minimum Wage: Calculate a guaranteed monetary amount using the rate that is associated with a state (as of the day the premium is being generated). When you select this option, you must also select the state to use for the minimum wage from the drop-down list.
    • Employee Value: Calculate a guaranteed monetary amount using an employee value field. This parameter lets you specify varying rates among your employees. When you select this option, you must also select the field that contains the guaranteed rate from the drop-down list.
    • Explicit: Calculate a guaranteed monetary amount using an explicit rate for every employee.

    The specified rate is multiplied by the guarantee minutes that are calculated using the parameters in the next section.

One of the options

Guarantee Minutes Calculation parameters

These parameters define the amount of minutes the rule guarantees. You can specify a constant duration or base the duration off the value of any UDF or employee value field.

Parameter Description Valid Values
*Use Guaranteed Minutes from This parameter controls how the amount of hours employees are guaranteed is determined. Select one of these options:
  • Constant Duration: Guarantee the specified duration, in minutes, of work for every employee.
  • Scheduled Duration: Guarantee the amount of work in the employee's schedule. For example, if an employee is scheduled from 8:00 to 12:00, the employee is guaranteed 4 hours of work on that day.
  • Employee UDF: Guarantee the amount of minutes specified in an employee UDF. This parameter allows you to specify varying amounts of work among your employees. When you select this option, you must also select the UDF that contains the guaranteed amount of work from the lookup.
  • Employee Value: Guarantee the amount of minutes specified in an employee value field. This parameter allows you to specify varying amounts of work among your employees. When you select this option, you must also select the field that contains the guaranteed amount of work from the drop-down list.
  • Eligible Bonus: Guarantee the amount of eligible time the employee works plus "bonus time" that gets added on. When you select this option, you must also specify the additional time in minutes. For example, if an employee is paid an additional hour for working a split shift, specify 60 in this field.
    Note: This option can only be used when the Guarantee Type parameter is set to Money.
One of the options
Guaranteed Minutes Multiplier Specify a decimal number to specify a multiplier that the rule applies to the Use Guaranteed Minutes from parameter value, if Scheduled Duration, Employee UDF or Employee Value was selected.

When specified, the rule multiplies the duration obtained from the employee's schedule, or the selected UDF or employee value field, by this multiplier value. The result is the number of minutes the employee is guaranteed to work.

This value can be a negative number. If the result of the guaranteed minutes' calculation is zero, the rule will not insert any guarantee premiums.

Any decimal value
Discount Minutes Specify the number of minutes (if any) the rule subtracts from the calculated guaranteed minutes. Generally, this parameter is used for cases when the scheduled duration, or employee UDF or value field value includes minutes that should not be part of the guaranteed time, such as an employee's lunch.

Leave blank and the rule does not subtract any minutes from the guaranteed minutes.

If the result of the guaranteed minutes' calculation is zero, the rule will not insert any guarantee premiums.

Any positive integer, representing minutes
Minimum Guarantee Duration Specify the minimum amount of minutes employees are guaranteed. Generally, this parameter is used when the Use Guaranteed Minutes from parameter uses the scheduled duration, employee UDF, or employee value field to ensure employees are guaranteed a certain number of minutes.

If the specified duration is longer than the calculated guaranteed minutes, than the rule guarantees the Minimum Guarantee Duration.

The rule calculates the guaranteed minutes as follows:

(Use Guaranteed Minutes from value X Guaranteed Minutes Multiplier) - Discount Minutes

If the calculated guaranteed minutes' duration is longer, or if the Minimum Guarantee Duration parameter is blank, than the rule guarantees the calculated guaranteed minutes.

Any integer, representing minutes
Maximum Guarantee Duration Specify the maximum number of minutes employees can be guaranteed. If the calculated guaranteed minutes is longer than the specified duration, the rule only guarantees the Maximum Guarantee Duration.

The rule calculates the guaranteed minutes as follows:

(Use Guaranteed Minutes from value X Guaranteed Minutes Multiplier) - Discount Minutes

If the calculated guaranteed minutes' duration is shorter, or if the Maximum Guarantee Duration parameter is blank, the rule does not limit the amount of guaranteed minutes.

Any integer, representing minutes
Consider On-Call Time Only This parameter controls whether the rule considers only on-call shifts when determining the employee's scheduled duration value. Use this parameter with the Scheduled Duration option to pay an employee for their full on-call time, regardless of whether they get called into work.

When selected, the rule calculates the guaranteed minutes value based on the schedule duration of on-call shifts only. If an employee records work time that reduces the amount of on-call time on the timesheet, a premium is inserted, so that the total on-call compensation is equal to the employee's on-call scheduled duration.

For example, an employee is scheduled for an on-call shift on a day from 17:00 to 20:00 (180 minutes). If the employee is called into work and records work time from 18:30 to 19:30 (60 minutes) on the same day, leaving 2 hours (120 minutes) of on-call time on the timesheet, then the rule inserts a premium of 1 hour (60 minutes), so that the total on-call compensation is equal to 3 hours (180 minutes).

If the employee's on-call shift is spread over multiple labor metrics, then the Guarantee Labor Settings parameters can be used so that the cumulative on-call time reflects the proportions of the on-call shift. If the rule has not been configured to allocate the labor metrics proportionally, then the labor metrics specified in the employee's default labor allocation are used.

Note: When the Consider On-Call Time Only option is selected, then the Type of Eligible Detail parameter is ignored. Only work details within the employee's scheduled on-call time are considered eligible.
Selected or cleared
Use effective minutes when calculating eligible minutes This parameter controls whether the rule considers the hour types of eligible details when determining if an employee is owed a guarantee premium.

When selected, the rule multiplies the duration of each eligible detail by the related hour type multiplier. So, a 2 hour work detail with the OT2 hour type, counts as 4 hours (2 hour duration multiplied by the OT2 multiplier of 2) of work against the employee's guaranteed time.

When cleared, the duration of eligible details are not multiplied by their hour type multiplier.

Selected or cleared
Consider independent occurrences This parameter controls whether the rule groups all eligible work details in a day together, when determining if employees are owed guarantee premiums.

When selected, the rule creates groups of eligible time by finding the first eligible work detail and grouping the work detail to any eligible details adjacent to each other and the first eligible work detail. After the rule finds an ineligible detail, the first group ends, and a second group is formed for all the subsequent eligible work details. If the ineligible work detail contains a time code that is listed in the Ignore time codes when considering independent occurrences parameter, the rule ignores the detail and maintains the grouping until the rule finds the next ineligible detail. This process repeats across the entire day, creating groups of eligible time.

After the rule divides the eligible time into groups, the rule then compares the duration of each group to the amount of guaranteed minutes, and pays a guarantee premium for each group that is shorter than the amount of guaranteed minutes.

When cleared, the rule groups all eligible details during one day together. This duration is compared to the amount of guaranteed minutes, and the rule pays a guarantee premium if the duration is shorter.

This parameter is only used when the Guarantee Period parameter is set to Day and the Type of Eligible Detail parameter is set to Work.

Selected or cleared
Ignore time codes when considering independent occurrences Select the time codes that the rule ignores when grouping eligible work details. This parameter is only used when the Consider independent occurrences parameter is selected.

You cannot specify any time codes that were also selected in the Time Codes parameter.

Any valid time code that is not listed in the Time Codes parameter

Guarantee Premium Configuration parameters

These parameters define the attributes of the guarantee premiums the rule inserts.

Parameter Description Valid Values
*Premium Time Code This parameter determines the time code the rule uses when inserting premiums. There are two options:
  • Select Assign time code to specify the time code. Select the premium's time code using the lookup.
  • Select Allocate proportionally by time code to proportion guarantee premium hours by time code, in the same ratio as the eligible work. The rule pays the premium against the same time codes as the eligible work, in the same ratio.
One of the options
Premium Hour Type This parameter determines the hour type the rule uses when inserting premiums. There are two options:
  • Select Assign hour type to specify the hour type. Select the premium's hour type using the lookup.
  • Select Allocate proportionally by hour type to proportion guarantee premium hours by hour type, in the same ratio as the eligible work. The rule pays the premium against the same hour types as the eligible work, in the same ratio.
One of the options
Premium Rate This parameter determines the rate the rule uses when inserting premiums. Select one of these options:
  • Employee base rate: The premium is generated using the employee's base rate (as of the day the premium is being generated). This functionality is the same functionality already delivered in previous versions of the Guarantee Plus Rule.
  • Minimum wage: The premium is generated using the rate that is associated with the selected state (as of the day the premium is being generated). When you select this option, you must also select the state to use for the minimum wage from the drop-down list.
  • Allocate proportionally by rate: Creates multiple premiums based on the rates found in the eligible work details defined for the guarantee eligibility. For example, an employee guaranteed 8 hours who worked 2 hours at $10.00 and 2 hours at $15.00 would get two separate premiums: 2 hours at $10 and 2 hours at $15.
  • Money Owed: The premium is generated by calculating the amount the employee is owed (using the rate that is specified in the Guarantee Type parameter) minus the amount the employee has already earned.
    Note: This option can only be used when the Guarantee Type parameter is set to Money.
 One of the options

Guarantee Labor Settings parameters

These parameters define which labor metrics guarantee premiums are paid against. By default, the labor metrics specified in the employee's default labor allocation are used. You can either specify labor metrics, or configure the rule to proportion guarantee hours against the labor metrics of the eligible work.

Parameter Description Valid Values
Premium Job This parameter determines what job guarantee premiums are charged against. There are two options:
  • Select Assign job to specify the job. Select which job the premium is charged against using the lookup or leave the lookup blank and the premium's job labor metric is determined by the employee's default labor allocation.
  • Select Allocate proportionally by job to proportion guarantee premium hours by job, in the same ratio as the eligible work. The rule pays the premium against the same jobs as the eligible work, in the same ratio.
 One of the options
Premium Department This parameter determines what department guarantee premiums are charged against. There are two options:
  • Select Assign department to specify the department. Select which department the premium is charged against using the lookup, or leave the lookup blank and the premium's department labor metric is determined by the employee's default labor allocation.
  • Select Allocate proportionally by department to proportion guarantee premium hours by department, in the same ratio as the eligible work. The rule pays the premium against the same departments as the eligible work, in the same ratio.
One of the options
Premium Project This parameter determines what projects guarantee premiums are charged against. There are two options:
  • Select Assign project to specify the project. Select which project the premium is charged against using the lookup, or leave the lookup blank and the premium's project labor metric is determined by the employee's default labor allocation.
  • Select Allocate proportionally by project to proportion guarantee premium hours by project, in the same ratio as the eligible work. The rule pays the premium against the same projects as the eligible work, in the same ratio.
One of the options
Premium Docket This parameter determines what dockets guarantee premiums are charged against. There are two options:
  • Select Assign docket to specify the docket. Select which docket the premium is charged against using the lookup, or leave the lookup blank and the premium's docket labor metric is determined by the employee's default labor allocation.
  • Select Allocate proportionally by docket to proportion guarantee premium hours by docket, in the same ratio as the eligible work. The rule pays the premium against the same dockets as the eligible work, in the same ratio.
One of the options
Allocate proportionally by UDF Select the UDF fields the premium is charged against using the lookup. When paying out shift premiums, the rule applies the selected work detail UDFs to premium hours, in the same ratio as the eligible work. UDFs 1 through 10
Allocate proportionally by Flag Select the Flag fields the premium is charged against using the lookup. When paying out shift premiums, the rule applies the selected work detail Flags to premium hours, in the same ratio as the eligible work. Flags 1 through 10
Allocate proportionally by team Select this option to proportion guarantee premium hours by team, in the same ratio as the eligible work. The rule pays the premium against the same teams as the eligible work, in the same ratio. Selected or cleared
Allocate proportionally by FSM attributes Select this option to proportion guarantee premium hours by FSM attributes.
Premium Quantity Specify the premium's quantity value.

If left blank, the premium does not have a quantity value.

Any integer value