Alan McEwen is a leading Canadian payroll consultant, with over 25 years of experience in all aspects of the industry.
He has implemented and managed outsourced payroll operations for both large and small employers and consulted with many organizations, public and private, on HR/payroll process re-engineering and strategic systems decisions. As a noted public speaker, Alan has delivered training sessions for The Canadian Payroll Association, LeadingEdge Payroll Group and at numerous conferences and trade shows. His subject matter expertise has been highlighted in all major Canadian payroll publications, including those by Carswell (Thomson Reuters), CCH Canadian (Wolters Kluwer) and the Human Resources Management Association.
Alan offers clients a full range of consulting services, including a suite of compliance resources. These include guides, calculation exercises, webinars and seminars devoted to employment standards and source deduction topics. Please click on Need to Know above for more details.
Canadian Payroll Consulting 
Thiss is great
Hi Alan,
We have recently moved to a new payroll structure where employees receive their full compensation mid-month. We want to pay in arrears so the pay periods would be the 15th to the 15th (example: The February 15th pay date was encompass Jan 16-31 & Feb 1 -15). Employees have been informed of their new 2022 salary, is there annual still accurate if they won’t receive their December 16-31 amount until the Jan 15, 2023 pay date? Example. An employee has been offered $50,000 starting Jan 1, 2022. Their mid-month pay for January would only encompass Jan 1-15. Then February mid month would encompass Jan 16-31 & Feb 1-15. With this example the full $50,000 won’t be physically issued in 2022. The final amount for 2022 will be received in 2023.
Is this being approached correctly?
Amy, a couple of points. First, in some provinces, notably BC, what you’re proposing is not permitted by the employment standards. In BC, monthly pay periods aren’t permitted.
Second, you ask about the impact on annual salaries when the pay periods don’t match the calendar year. For example, as I understand it, work between December 16 and 31 would only be paid in the following year. I don’t see this as a problem. Once you get past the first year, the T4 would still show the full annual salary. And you aren’t changing how much employees are paid. You are just changing when its paid.
Alan R. McEwen
Alan McEwen & Associates
855 Berwick Road South, Qualicum Beach, BC V9K 1R3
250-228-5280 in the Pacific time zone
https://alanrmcewen.com
Hi Alan,
Thank you so much for your response; it is very helpful. I appreciate your quality information and supportive answer.
I really enjoy the content on your site.
Cheers!
Hello, we are in the middle of evaluating a payroll system switch. Potentially the switch will be done middle of a calendar year. The vendor said that they cannot convert EI ROE from the old system. It will have to be generated in the new system. Do you see a problem with that? Any other potential issues you might see for a mid-year switch?
Judy, a mid-year change in payroll systems means that employee year-to-dates will have to extracted from the old system and loaded into the new system, which may also mean converting these values in some way, if the setup structures between the two systems are in any way different. Generally, this adds significantly to the volume of work involved in the payroll implementation. That being said, the start of a new tax year can be a very busy time – the calendar year might also be the employer’s fiscal year for accounting and tax purposes. These are the factors you have to weigh in any decision on what to schedule the conversion from one system to another.
Hi I live in saskatchewan I was wondering if I work a stat day of 12 hours and anything over 12 hours is over time do they have to pay me 1.5 times the 12 hours and 3 times for the over time or is it still all time and a half
Michelle, you should probably first check with your employer as to what you are entitled to, but the rules in Saskatchewan are that all work on a statutory holiday are payable at time and a half. This only applies to employees subject to the Saskatchewan employment standards, i.e. not to federally regulated employment.
Sir,
Can you please tell me when it became legal for Alberta employers (or other provincial private employers) to forcefully (mandatory) deducts sums of money off an employees regular paychecks for the purpose of purchasing long and short term disability insurance from a private insurance company with which the employer is contracted with?
I would much rather shop around and decide if, when and what type and from whom I would like to purchase private insurance.
Thank you
Peter
Edmonton,AB
what is the percentage of the vacation pay for hourly paid employee?
Hi Allan,
I just came across your article from January 2013 regarding retroactive payroll processing. I wondered if you could answer a question for me. I am currently having to calculate retroactive pay due to a collective agreement bargaining. I understand how the calculations work for most of it, but am unsure about the benefits portion, specifically for life insurance and LTD. Would I need to also calculate the life insurance and LTD benefit premiums for the period in question and pay those (75% employer paid, 25% employee paid) ? Some people say no, and others say yes, and I cannot find any good information of this on the internet to give me a straight answer on this.
Thank you,
Barb
Barb Young
Assistant to the Controller
Sudbury Hospital Services
Sudbury, ON
barb.young@hospitalservices.ca
Barb, there is no answer to this question to be found in the applicable employment standards. That’s likely the reason you haven’t been able to find any information on it on the Internet.
The only straight answer you might be able to find would be in the documentation from the carrier for these benefits. Somewhere you will find how the earnings for the life insurance and LTD premiums are defined. However, those definitions are likely just to say something like regular salary or annual earnings.
In the end, it depends on how you define the effective date for the salary changes in the information to the carrier. If you back date the retroactive increases in the information you give the carrier, then you will have to calculate life insurance and LTD premiums on the retro increase. If you give the carrier a current date for these changes, then no retro would apply to these benefit premiums.
Make sense?
Alan
Thank you for sharing this information..
Payroll Management System..