Getting to know your pay stub: Hours & Earnings and Taxes (Episode 2) - YouTube

[Jessica] Hi there, SFUSD educators. I’m Jessica. [Christelle] And I’m Christelle.

This video is part of our “Getting to know your paystub” video series, and this is episode 2.

We’re going to be talking about the sections labeled “Hours & Earnings” and “Taxes”.

[Jessica] Pay stubs look a little different in EMPowerSF, so we’re here to break down the different sections and show how the math works.

This video is a little longer than the rest in this series, but we think it’s going to answer a lot of questions people have.

Hang on to your hats because here we go!

[Christelle] Let’s start with the hours & earnings section. This box breaks down different parts of your pay.

While the amounts, rates, and hours will be different from employee to employee, there are some common vocabulary terms we can go over.

[Jessica] For hourly employees, the “Regular” line is your base pay, and it’s usually calculated by the number of hours you worked during that pay period.

Certificated employees will have a salary line, and

your salary amount is calculated by taking your full salary for the year, also called an annualized salary, divided by 11 for the 11 months you work.

[Christelle] Some people, especially teachers, have noticed their salary amount has changed since we switched over to EMPowerSF. Why is that?

[Jessica] Oh, I’m so glad you asked this!

This next part only pertains to teachers, so if you’re not a teacher, you can fast forward!

This year, SFUSD changed the way it reports teacher earnings to CalSTRS.

In the past, we reported 12 months of earnings whether or not a teacher stays for the full school year.

But now, we report earnings for the months that teachers actually worked.

For a teacher that stays the full school year, this means 11 months of earnings get reported to CalSTRS.

But in order to issue 12 paychecks to teachers, as part of a union negotiation to make sure teachers still get a paycheck in July,

SFUSD had to apply a new method, called Deferred Net Pay, or DNP.

DNP is a small amount that is withheld from each paycheck each month,

which is why it’s a negative number on your pay stub,

and it should be the same amount on every single paystub.

[Christelle] Oh, that means this school year ended up being a little weird.

Because we had half of the school year using the old system and switched to the new system in January, the two systems don’t line up exactly.

[Jessica] That’s right.

Teachers still get their same full salary for the school year, but the calculations are different and the Deferred Net Pay (DNP) makes teachers’ pay stubs more transparent.

Let’s look at an example of a teacher with an $84,000 salary for the school year.

$84,000 divided by 12 is $7,000.

So under the old system, this teacher would have earned $7,000 each month.

This means they earned $35,000 total during the five months from August to December.

But now, under EMPowerSF, this teacher earns about $8,166 a month.

Let’s break down the math:

$84,000 minus the $35,000 already paid up through December equals $49,000 left for the months January through June.

If you take $49,000 and divide it by the remaining 6 months of work for January through June,

since CALSTRS now requires only 11 months of earnings reported,

this teacher gets $8166.66 on their monthly paycheck,

instead of the $7000 they used to get.

And remember that DNP we just talked about?

That DNP, or deferred net pay, is a small amount is withheld from each paycheck to make the union-negotiated July paycheck.

A teacher’s DNP rate is their remaining salary for January through June,

which is $49,000 in this example, times 0.006944.

Remember that this new monthly salary calculation method and DNP only apply to teachers.

[Christelle] Will teachers see DNP and salary changes next year?

[Jessica] Teachers will see DNP next year, but the salary amounts won’t change mid-year next year.

Since we’ll be using EMPowerSF for the entire year,

their total school year salary will be divided by 11 starting in August with the DNP amount to make up the 12th paycheck.

[Christelle] Those salary calculations all make sense, but some teachers see different amounts from month to month.

If the total is getting divided by 11, why does the salary number sometimes change from month to month?

[Jessica] If you’re an hourly employee, like a clerk, student nutrition services staff, or custodial staff,

your salary amount might be different from month to month because you worked a different number of hours.

If there is a number of hours in the hours column and a number in the rate column,

you can multiply the two together to get the number in the earnings column.

However, if you’re a teacher, your salary might be different from month to month

because of a recent improvement in our pay stubs that make them more transparent.

Starting in April, when certificated employees use paid leave during a pay period such as sick leave or personal necessity leave,

you’ll see the number of hours you used followed by an adjustment subtracting the exact same amount of money.

The salary amount used to do this automatically behind the scenes, reducing itself by the amount being paid for leave to avoid duplicate pay,

but now the adjustment has been separated out to make it easier to understand and track.

Moving forward, the salary line should stay the same each month.

If you are wondering if you got your full salary from January to March,

you simply have to add up the salary line plus any other lines for sick, personal necessity, leaves, permission days, etc.

[Christelle] That change makes a lot of sense.

After all, all new systems take some adjustment time, so it makes sense that paychecks might continue to improve in the future.

SFUSD remains committed to helping people understand their pay stubs more clearly.

[Jessica] Getting back to the hours and earnings, you might see lines for sick pay, extended hours, other leaves, or FWEA 18 PD hours.

These are typically calculated in terms of hours,

so you can see how many of those hours are being accounted for in this particular paycheck.

Again, if you multiply the rate amount by the number of hours listed, it will equal the amount listed in the earnings column.

You can also see how many of these hours have been used year to date, since January.

[Christelle] The “Current” column refers to the amounts for this paycheck.

“YTD” stands for year to date, and it is the total of these types of earnings since the start of January.

You might also see various add-ons, such as QTEA or FWEA.

These are union-negotiated amounts, so you can ask your union rep if you have questions about these additional add-ons.

[Jessica] Lastly, the gray bar under this box lists the total amounts,

which is the sum of all the earnings listed in this box,

and it lists a current amount, meaning the total earnings for this pay period, and a YTD amount, or year to date amount.

[Christelle] Now let’s look at the taxes box.

This box lists the amounts being withheld and sent to the government for you,

for federal income taxes, Medicare contributions, and state income taxes.

These amounts are unique from employee to employee

and are determined by many different factors, including filing status, household income, dependents, and more.

The amounts listed here are determined by your answers on your W-4 form,

and you can submit a new W-4 at any time on EMPowerSF.

The W-4 also offers the option to withhold extra money each pay period, which is automatically included in these amounts here.

[Jessica] It’s important to know that it’s against the law for SFUSD to give tax, W-4, or withholding advice.

We recommend contacting a tax professional if you need help with filling out the W-4

or determining if you want to withhold additional money each paycheck towards state and/or federal taxes.

Free financial and tax guidance is available through SFUSD’s Employee Assistance Program.

Visit sfusd.edu/eap for more information.

[Christelle] The total amount withheld from this paycheck is listed in the gray bar.

Just like the hours & earnings box, the taxes box lists both a current amount,

meaning the total taxes this pay period,

and a YTD, or year to date, amount.

[Jessica] That’s it for this video. It was longer than the others, but we hope you learned a lot!

[Christelle] To learn more about your pay stub, watch the other videos in our series or go to sfusd.edu/employees/paystub for more pay stub resources.