Employee Resources

Who is eligible to request transitional leave?

• Twelve-month employees who are part of the monthly to bi-weekly payroll transition; and
  • Have a past or future approved leave event*
  • Hold benefits-eligible appointments that accrue paid leave.
  • Have had continuous benefit-eligible employment for at least 12 months from their current date of hire.
  • Must have exhausted all extended sick leave and have a PTO balance of 80 hours or less.
  • Have a current satisfactory performance evaluation on file, or have no positive disciplinary actions on file, during the previous 12-month period.

*Leave events include: an employee’s own serious health condition, birth of a child, adoption, or foster care placement, caring for a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition, and military caregiver leave.

A leave event must occur between November 1, 2022, and December 31, 2024, and *significantly reduced or will reduce their PTO balance. Significantly reduced means the employee has used all their PTO, ESL or has a PTO balance of 80 hours or less.

How many hours of leave can an eligible employee request from the transitional leave pool?
Eligible employees may receive a maximum of 40 hours of PTO prorated by full time equivalency (FTE).

What is the REQUEST process?

• Apply via Qualtrics Survey to Human Resources.
• HR Leave Administrators will verify the employee’s leave balance and confirm an approved leave event exists in the allowed timeframe.
• Employees will be notified of the outcome of their request via email.
• Employees must apply by Friday, February 16th, 2024.

Who can DONATE and what are the associated guidelines?

• Any Norman campus program employee who currently accrues PTO.
• The donating employee may donate any amount of paid leave, provided the donation does not cause the employee to fall below 50% of their annual accrual.
• Donations must be made in full-hour increments.
• Donations may only be made from your PTO balance. Donations from Extended Sick Leave (ESL) will not be accepted.
• Donations are due no later than Wednesday, January 31, 2024.

What is the DONATION process?

• Donate via Qualtrics Survey
  
• Donations will be deducted from your PTO balance by February 15^th.

General Guidelines for the Transitional Leave Pool

• Donated paid leave is transferable to the Transitional Leave Pool only and may not be transferred between employees.
• All donated leave must be given voluntarily. No employee shall be coerced, threatened, intimidated, or financially induced into donating paid leave for purposes of the Transitional Leave Program.
• Persons involved in the administration of the Transitional Leave Program are responsible for guarding the privacy of leave recipients and donors and will ensure confidentiality for all participants.
• Any excess leave remaining in the Transitional Leave Pool will be transferred to the Share Leave Program at the conclusion of the monthly to biweekly transition.
• Transitional leave requests will not be accepted after the deadline and must be applied for by February 16, 2024. Transitional leave will be paid on employee's May 3, 2024 paycheck.  

For questions about donating or requesting transitional leave, please email paydaychange@ou.edu.

Attend a financial planning workshop hosted by Magellan Health! If you're looking for assistance in setting up or just restructuring your personal budget as you transition from a monthly pay schedule to biweekly, this workshop will offer you some tools and resources to do so. You must register in advance to attend the live webinar.

Opportunities to attend a workshop:

• View a Recording of the November 28, 2023 Workshop and download the Budget Workbook provided by Magellan Health.

Click here to download the Magellan Health Budget Workbook.

To bridge the one-time delay between the last monthly paycheck and the first biweekly paycheck, eligible staff members may ‘cash in’ up to 80 hours of leave.

• The form to submit your leave hours to bridge the one-time delay will be available in Employee Self-Service February 1^st – 29^th. All eligible employees will be required to complete the form, even if they choose not to cash in any hours.
• Employees are not required to cash in any leave hours; the selection to cash in leave hours is completely optional.
• Employees may choose to receive a leave payout (bridge payment) of up to 80 hours, with up to 40 hours from Extended Sick Leave (ESL) and the remainder from Paid Time Off (PTO). The value of this leave will be paid to you via payroll on 05/03/24.   
• Employees can use leave accrued through 03/31/24 (i.e. the balance as of 04/01/24), so they may need to project leave balances when completing the election form.
• The bridge payment is not available to employees that do not accrue paid time off, such as graduate assistants and faculty in 9-month positions.
• PTO/ESL balances are presented at the bottom right on the home screen in WorkForce (time.ou.edu). 

Click here for disclosures and disclaimers.

The below pay schedule demonstrates an example of gross payments for an employee whose annual salary is $50,000 for the 2024 calendar year, assuming they elect to receive 80 hours of leave pay out.

The Excel version of this calculator can be downloaded below and allows you to enter your salary details - the first tab will calculate gross pay while the second tab will calculate and estimated net pay.

Biweekly Pay Calculator

Benefits-eligible employees paid on a biweekly schedule have retirement contributions made over 26 pay periods. This includes employee and employer contributions such as OTRS, 403(b), 457(b), and *401(a) contributions.

Example: Employee with a base salary of $50,000

Benefits-eligible employees paid on a bi-weekly schedule have health, life, and disability premiums collected over 24 pay periods. Below are examples of the employee cost for monthly medical insurance premiums vs bi-weekly medical insurance premiums.

Benefits-eligible employees earn Paid Time Off (PTO) through a leave accrual program as part of the comprehensive benefits package provided at OU. Monthly and bi-weekly accrual rates are listed below.

Accrual rates for salaried employees are prorated based on FTE.

Faculty appointed to 9-month positions accrue 96 hours (12 days) of extended sick leave per year.  9-month faculty do not accrue other paid leave.

For Benefits Eligible Employees in 12-month Appointments Paid Over 12-Months

The graph below demonstrates cumulative pay over the calendar year 2025, with the red line showing the new biweekly pay schedule and the blue line showing the old monthly pay schedule. Because of the increased pay frequency, the biweekly schedule results in employees receiving more of their paycheck sooner than the existing monthly schedule. There are approximately 329 days out of the year that an employee will have more pay on the biweekly schedule than you would have had on the monthly pay frequency. If you open the Excel file below you can enter your own gross salary to calculate a cumulative balance of your pay over a year's time and it should also populate the graph specific to your gross salary on a separate tab.

Running Balance Comparison 

To ensure proper federal income tax withholding, employees may use the IRS Withholding Calculator.

The ‘calculator’ helps you determine the recommended withholding allowance and additional withholding (if any) you should report on your W-4 form.  

IMPORTANT NOTE: This Withholding Calculator works for most taxpayers. People with more complex tax situations should use the instructions in Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax. 

Additional information on the IRS Withholding Calculator is available on the IRS website: IRS Withholdings Calculator