No information is given over the phone. Any information requested should be done either in writing to the Payroll office or faxed to 701-777-4721. An authorization for release of information should also accompany the request; especially if the information requested is on a student. NO information will be released on a student without a release authorization.

We are paid twice a month which is the 15th and the last day of the month. If a payday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, payday is the Friday prior to the weekend. Due to the PeopleSoft system, there is a 2 week lag in paychecks. Meaning, if you were hired on the 1st, your first paycheck would be on the 31st.

A salaried employee is paid from the 1st to the 15th and the 16th to the end of the month. When an employee starts work on a date other than the 1st or the 16th, the salary is figured on a percentage basis. This means the number of days worked is divided by the number of work days in the pay period.

When you change your address with the Payroll Office, we send the change to TIAA/CREF or to NDPERS State Retirement, depending on what retirement you participate in. The change is also sent to NDPERS for your health insurance coverage.

No. You will receive only one paycheck, which includes pay from all departments.

Employees while on leave shall retain their years' service rights and accumulated benefits but shall earn no additional benefits.

The first of the month after the month of employment (example: begin work June 10; coverage begins on July 1)

First of the month after the month of marriage.

First of the month in which the baby was born.

The end of the month after the month of termination.

End of the month in which the child turns 23 if they are financially dependent on the parents; or end of the month in which they turn 26 if a full-time student.

Yes.

PPO stands for "Preferred Provider Organization" and is a group of hospitals, clinics and independent health care practitioners who provide discounted services to the Members of NDPERS. Because PPO Health Care Providers charge Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota less for medical care services provided to the Members of NDPERS, cost savings are passed on to Members by way of reduced Cost Sharing Amounts. If a PPO Health Care Provider is not available in the Member's area, or if the Member chooses or is referred to a Health Care Provider not participating in the Preferred Provider Organization, the member will receive the Basic Plan benefits.

PPO/Basic Plan: Single contract is $400 deductible, and family contract is $1200 per calendar year for family of three or more.

An increase in life insurance must be medically approved with both companies. State Life only accepts applications during the annual open enrollment in October. UND Life accepts applications anytime during the year.

End of the month after the month of termination.

Yes. We have conversion forms for State Life and UND Life insurance. UND Life may be continued as a term policy (rates are about doubled) or converted to whole life. State Life must be converted to whole life. Conversion rates for both companies are sent to the employee once they submit a conversion form to the insurance company.

Since there are several different options available, the local agent must contact you

You can convert to a private contract at the same rate.

FlexComp is a Cafeteria Plan. It allows you to save taxes on the amount you pay for eligible insurance premiums, medical expenses, and dependent care expenses.

The biggest advantage is the tax savings. Since the dollars you contribute to the plan are deducted before income and social security tax are deducted, you will pay less taxes which means you have more money to spend or save. However, you should be aware you are reducing the social security taxes paid which could slightly reduce your social security benefits.

Generally, your net take home pay will increase by the amount of tax savings, which will typically be 25-39% of your contribution. The amount of tax savings will depend on other deductions you may have and your income tax bracket.

You may change your election only if there is a change in your family status that causes your FlexComp plan expenses to change. This includes marriage, divorce, death of a spouse or child, birth/adoption of a child, termination or commencement of a spouses employment, and other events that the administrator determines, will permit an election change in accordance with IRC (Internal Revenue Code) Section 125 regulations.

4-5 days

The FlexComp Reimbursement Voucher

Complete a reimbursement voucher, attach the required itemized billings or receipts and send to the Payroll Office.

Yes, the only information that is needed for audit purposes is the name of the patient, date of service and charges. The name of the medical facility and doctor are not needed.

You need to have your day care provider complete the signature and tax ID/SS # portion of the reimbursement voucher.

Yes

The Payroll Office will have the necessary forms; or, you can print them from the Payroll Web Page

Yes. You may submit up to your annual limit at any time throughout the plan year.

You may submit claims as frequently or as infrequently as you wish, just as long as the dates-of-service have occurred. Whatever works best for you.

Your reimbursement from your dependent care account will not exceed the amount of your payroll deduction to date.

FlexComp Specialist in the Payroll Office

Yes. Previously they were non-allowable expenses. However, the IRS has changed that.

Yes, sun-glasses are and if there is a prescription or if there is a note of recommendation for reading glasses from a doctor accompanying flex reimbursement voucher.

The IRS requires that any unused funds at the end of the grace period be forfeited. We recommend that you be conservative in your elections.

It is the time period from January 1 through March 15 in which expenses can be incurred in order to use up any remaining balance from the prior Plan Year.

Those participants who were unable to use their full election amount in the prior Plan Year.

Yes, it applies to both medical and dependent care expenses.

No, claims will be paid in the order in which they are received. Eligible expenses incurred during the grace period and approved for reimbursement will be paid first from available amounts that are remaining in the previous Plan Year and then from amounts that are available for the current Plan Year.

The deadline is 90 days after the end of the Plan Year; in other words, 90 days after December 31 of any given year.

Upon receiving termination paperwork from the employee's department, an employee is paid out any remaining vacation hours the pay period after their final check. This is figured by the hourly rate times hours of vacation. An employee is paid out sick leave hours ONLY if he/she has been employed for 10 years or more. If that is the case, the employee is paid 10% of the total sick leave hours still on record times the hourly rate. (If a terminating employee is negative in either sick or vacation hours, it will be taken from their final paycheck.)

Yes. The department will need to send paperwork to the payroll office indicating what dates the employee is taking without pay. If the employee is to be gone a few days in the pay period, the salary is again figured on a percentage basis (the number of days worked divided by the days in the pay period). If the employee is on Leave of Absence for a number of hours, then it will be figured by the hourly rate times hours not worked and subtracted from the pay period salary. If the employee will be on Leave of Absence for an entire pay period or more, his/her paycheck will be stopped entirely until the department indicates that the employee is returning to work.

When an amount of sick or vacation shows up in the area "deducted this pay period" on the check stub with a (-) minus symbol, it means that the amount was subtracted from the taken year to date and added to the balance. If you check your balances from the previous paycheck, you will see the correction in your balance.

All full time employees start with 8 hours of vacation per month. After completing 3 full years, you go to 10 hours per month. After completing 7 full years, you go to 12 hours per month. After completing 12 full years, you go to 14 hours per month. After completing 18 full years, you go to 16 hours per month and that is the cap for earning. Vacation and sick leave accrual amounts are calculated on your percentage of full time. If you are a 75% of full time employee, your leave is calculated on 75% of the full time earning rate.

Our records indicate that you had already taken 20 hours of dependent sick leave. Since the maximum allowable per calendar year is 80 hours, the balance would have to be taken from vacation.

No. Personal sick leave is for your illness, not your dependents. UND allows employees to take 80 hours per year of our existing sick leave balance for time we need off due to the illness of an eligible dependent. Previous to this policy, any time we needed off due to the illness of a dependent had to be turned in as vacation leave.

Dependent leave is deducted from your personal sick leave balance. There is not a separate dependent leave balance. The dependent leave benefit allows us to use 80 hours per year of our existing sick leave balance for the time we need to take for the illness of our eligible dependents.

Yes. There are no exceptions to the use or lose policy.

Yes. If you terminate and return to any North Dakota State agency within one year, you can get back any sick leave hours that were not paid out to you when you terminated. Your years of service from your previous employment will be adjusted for the period of absence. This means that you will start earning vacation at the same rate you earned when you terminated.

In order to receive donated leave, you have to exhaust all of your sick and vacation leave balances. After discussing your situation with your supervisor, a letter should be sent to the Director of Human Resources & Payroll Services, describing your situation and the need for extended leave. This letter should be accompanied by a letter from your doctor explaining your inability to work and estimated date of return to work. Upon approval by the HR/Payroll Director, employees can begin to donate sick and vacation time to you. You can receive 693 hours in a one-year period, (prorated for part-time employees). If an employee donates leave to you, it is given to your vacation balance or sick leave balance, depending on the type of leave donated.

You can donate 5% (or less) of your current sick leave balance and any amount of your vacation as long as you maintain a vacation balance of 40 hours.

Yes. You can donate to as many co-workers as you want regardless of when you last donated. You just have to follow the policy of donating 5% (or less) of your current sick leave balance and any amount of your vacation as long as you leave yourself with 40 hours of vacation balance.

Only if she has been approved to receive donated leave. Employees cannot donate leave to co-workers who have not met the requirements for leave donations.

Your gross taxable wages were not large enough. You are claiming too many allowances. You are claiming the exempt status.

If you were claiming exempt status and it expired or you had a large enough gross wage, allowing taxes to be withheld.

If you are an International Student, your Visa status may have expired for tax purposes. If you are a student working and not enrolled in the required number of credits. If you are a student working in a staff position.

We cannot advise you. The IRS rule is if you cannot claim exemption from withholding if (1) your income exceeds $950 and includes more than $300 of unearned income (e.g., interest and dividends) and (2) another person can claim you as a dependent on their tax returns.

Yes, you will need to make the request and complete two forms. These forms can be obtained from the Payroll Office.

We can't advise you. Each employee's situation is different.

Flex Comp deductions reduce your gross wages for tax calculation and therefore, you pay less tax.

Not always, Supplemental Retirement Annuities are subject to Social Security/Medicare tax but not Federal and State tax.

Yes, forms and instructions are available in the Payroll Office.

The University of North Dakota has two retirement programs, NDPERS and TIAA-CREF. The retirement program an employee participates in depends on the position. Employees eligible for NDPERS are classified staff. Employees eligible for TIAA-CREF are faculty and administrative staff.

NDPERS - North Dakota Public Employees Retirement System

TIAA - Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association

CREF - College Retirement Equities Fund

To be vested means you are eligible to receive a monthly benefit from the retirement system you participate in.

NDPERS - Vested after three years of service.

TIAA-CREF - Vested immediately upon employment

NDPERS - A total of 11.26% is contributed to NDPERS

4.0% Employee Contribution paid by UND

1.0% Employee Contribution paid by Employee

5.12% Institution Matching

1.14% Institution for prefunding of health insurance.

TIAA-CREF - Contributions for TIAA-CREF vary according to rank and years of service.

                      Employee %         Employer %

0-2 years                1.5                   5.5

3-10 years              2.5                   10.5

After 10 years          3.0                 11.0

Full and Associate Professors start at the 3-10 year rate.

NDPERS - If you have worked for another ND State Agency and have not taken a refund of your retirement money you should notify UND and your previous agency and a transfer form will be completed for you.

TIAA-CREF - Please let the Payroll Office know if you have participated in TIAA-CREF at another institution and have not withdrawn your contributions. Include this information on the NDPERS, NDTFFR, TIAA-CREF Previous Participation form. Once the information has been verified, the contributions will be credited at the appropriate rate.

Any employee of the University of North Dakota can contribute to an SRA through TIAA-CREF. An SRA is a Supplemental Retirement Annuity, enrollment information is available under Forms on the Payroll Website. There is also a list of other companies to tax defer payments through payroll available at the Payroll Office.

Tax deferring is a retirement savings plan. Taxes are not paid on the amount of money withheld for your tax sheltered annuity. This reduces your taxable gross for the year. When you receive this money as income at retirement you may be in a lower tax bracket.

There is no limit to the number of changes you can make. The employee is responsible for keeping track of the amount of tax sheltering done in a year, so that they do not go over the maximum allowable by IRS guidelines. Contact the retirement specialist at the Payroll Office to find out the maximum allowable for each calendar year.

There is a brief summary of each account available during the online enrollment process TIAA-CREF. You may contact TIAA-CREF at 1-800-842-2776 or use their web site at www.tiaa-cref.org.

The allocation can be changed by calling TIAA-CREF 1-800-842-2252or online at www.tiaa-cref.org.

NDPERS - You may leave your money in for later withdrawal. - You may take a refund of the employee portion of contributions. This would be subject to 20% federal income tax before you receive the money. There is a 10% IRS penalty for early withdrawal if you are younger than 59 1/2 years old, this is assessed when you do your taxes for the year you received the refund.

You may take a retirement benefit if you meet the criteria for a benefit.

Have at least three years of service and be at least 55 years old. Payment is reduced by 0.5% for every month under age 65 of the retiree.

Qualify for the Rule of 85. (Years of service and age add up to 85 or more)

Be 65 years of age or older

TIAA-CREF - To be eligible to take a lump sum refund you must have less than $2,000 accumulated in the TIAA portion and less than $10,000 total between TIAA and CREF. An employee may take a monthly benefit from TIAA-CREF at age 55 if retired. A Participant who has terminated employment is entitled to receive benefits from any of the CREF accounts in a single sum upon the attainment of age 55 or their total accumulation is less than or equal to $10,000. Cash withdrawals from TIAA Traditional are available in substantially equal installments over a ten-year period.

The Safety Office or check with your supervisor.

One year, but accident claims must be reported to the Safety Office or your supervisor within 24 hours by completing an incident report.

To prevent employees missing paychecks, while their Workers' Comp claim is being filed, employees are instructed to submit sick leave slips to their supervisor. When you receive loss-time pay through Workers' Comp you will reimburse UND and we will reinstate the appropriate amount of sick leave based on your payment.