Frequently Asked Questions

Will monthly employees be paid hourly?
No, salaried employees will still be paid a set amount not determined by hours entered on their timesheet. Salaried employees will take their annual salary divided by 26 pay periods in the year to calculate their biweekly pay.

I don’t have any extended sick leave (ESL) can I use 100% PTO instead to be paid out between the last monthly pay check and the first biweekly paycheck?
Yes, you can use up to 80 hours of PTO if you don’t have ESL, or a combination of ESL and PTO not to exceed 40 hours of ESL.

What if I don’t want to receive any leave payout?
You don’t have to. It is completely optional. Those employees that elect to receive a leave payout will have to complete a form indicating the amount and type of hours they want paid out. The form will be available in Self-Service in February. Staff will receive an email when the form is live.

I’m going to need help figuring out my personal finances/budget, is there someone who can help me?
Yes, Magellan (our Employee Assistance Program) will host financial planning workshops and provide additional financial planning resources.

What should I do, as an employee, to prepare for this change?
If you are a staff member or 12-month academic appointment and plan to utilize the leave payout option to bridge the delay in paychecks in April-May, you can start saving up/planning to reserve up to 80 hours of your leave or you can start putting away funds now or making plans within your personal budget to account for this pay frequency change. You can determine when your bills are due/when auto-drafts are made and make any changes necessary to your bill pay schedule. Make sure you’re familiar with the new payday schedule and the employee resources on our website.

Will my annual take-home pay be affected?
If you elect to receive a leave payout of 80 hours, your total take-home pay within the calendar year 2024 will remain approximately the same as it would have been if you had been paid the entire year on a monthly schedule. For all future years your annual take-home pay under the biweekly schedule will equal what it did during the monthly schedule.

In the future, your paycheck will be paid two weeks in arrears, which means that for 2024 and all future years, the last pay period of the year will be paid two weeks later in January of the following year. Though the transition does not change your overall earnings, during the year when the transition actually happens, two weeks of pay are shifted from 2024 to 2025. 

The total earnings paid in the 2024 calendar year will not include the two weeks that are shifted to pay in arrears in January of 2025. You still earned this pay and you will still receive it, but it will be paid in 2025. 

The leave payout is being offered as an option to help with this transition. If an employee chooses to cash in the full allowed amount of 80 hours of leave, then they will take home the same amount of earnings in 2024 as they would have on a monthly pay schedule. Some employees will take the leave payout while other employees will begin changing their personal budgeting now so that the pay frequency change is already accounted for in their household budget. 

My biweekly rate is less than 1/2 of my monthly paycheck. Why?
There are 26 biweekly pay periods during the calendar year, which results in ten months having two biweekly paychecks and two months with three paychecks. To calculate your gross biweekly paycheck amount you would take your annual salary and divide by 26. So, as an example if your annual salary is $50k (monthly gross paycheck is $4166.67), your biweekly paycheck would be $1923.08. For months that have two biweekly paychecks you would receive $3846.15. For months that have three biweekly paychecks you would receive $5769.23. 

Do I have less money per month on the biweekly schedule?
The amount of pay you have on any given date may be different on the new schedule, but it is not necessarily less. Because you will be paid more frequently on a biweekly schedule, there are actually ~329 days out of the year that you will have more of your pay in your possession under the biweekly schedule than the monthly schedule.

Why are we transitioning to biweekly instead of semi-monthly in which we could be paid on the 1^st and 15^th?
More than half of OU employees are already on a biweekly schedule, this includes all hourly paid employees on Norman campus as well as all HSC employees. Moreover, the State of Oklahoma does not offer a semi-monthly payroll schedule option.

Why can’t the University just give employees PTO or extra pay to bridge the delay in paychecks, or give it to us in advance?
State regulation does not allow the University to pay in advance or simply give money or PTO to employees. Doing so would be considered a gift of state which is prohibited.

Will the employees who take the leave payout be on vacation the last part of April 2024? Won't this cause a problem in departments if we're all out of the office at the same time?
No, employees will not actually take the leave they request for the payout. If employees elect to receive a bridge payment on May 3rd, they are getting the leave paid out to them on a paycheck instead of using the leave to be out of the office.

Will the full benefits deduction amount come out of my last monthly paycheck even though I’m not receiving payment for the full month of April on my April 30^th paycheck?
Yes. We collect deductions in the month they are owed. The deductions on April 30 pay for April. The deductions taken on the two May biweekly paychecks pay for May. For the purposes of deductions, it is related to the month when the paycheck is issued, not when the work is done.

How do I know what my current PTO/ESL balances are? Is there a tool to help me project my balances at a future date? 
In WorkForce (time.ou.edu) when you navigate to “My Time Off” from the home screen, and then “Create New Request” and select “Continue” on the right menu under “Time Off for Sick, Vacation and Other”, on the calendar there is a box that says “Hours” where you can click on “Extended Sick Leave” and/or “Paid Leave” and then you can click on/hover over any month in the future to see what your projected balances will be based on current time off requests and projected accruals.

I have additional tax withholdings taken out of my paychecks, is there anything I need to do to update this when I start getting paid biweekly instead of monthly?
If you have additional federal and/or state withholdings as of April 2024, you will need to go into Self Service (Payroll-Tax Withholding) between April 20, 2024 and May 3, 2024 and update the amount to reflect the remaining 17 biweekly paychecks (or 18 if you want to include your bridge payment), instead of the 8 remaining months of withholding. 

Am I getting paid for all of my time worked? Will there be furloughs during this transition period?
Employees will be paid for all time worked during this transition. There will NOT be furloughs. The one-time delay in pay is a result of transitioning from pay being processed prospectively during monthly payroll to pay being processed retrospectively two weeks after the pay period has ended; it is not a result of employees working without pay. Employees electing to receive a leave payout will receive their leave in the form of a paycheck rather than taking leave.

I elected to receive the bridge payment (cash in PTO/ESL). What deductions can I expect to see on that check?
All applicable federal and state witholding taxes and any garnishments will be deducted from the bridge pay paycheck. However, no benefit deductions or retirement contributions will be taken from the bridge pay paycheck (payout of PTO and/or ESL is not considered eligible earnings by the IRS).

Since my bridge payment will not have retirement contributions, what do I need to do to ensure I meet my goals for my 403b and/or 457b?
Please review your contribution year-to-date totals on your most recent paystub. Calculate how much more you need to reach your retirement goal for the year based on the remaining pay periods. If you are short, you will need to consider increasing your percentage contribution per pay period.

Why can't we use all 80 hours of ESL for the leave payout?
In state statute §62-34.69, the state has provided guidance to agencies converting to a biweekly payroll that a maximum of 40 hours of earned sick leave can be included in the leave payout. 

Is there a tool I can use to see what my paycheck will look like when I transition to being paid biweekly?
Yes, you can use salary calculators like what is provided by PaycheckCity:  https://www.paycheckcity.com/calculator

For questions about the transition to biweekly payroll please email us at paydaychange@ou.edu.