Compensation

• Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

  Each position in the agency is analyzed by the Department of Administration, Office of Personnel Services to determine if the position, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, is considered to be a non-exempt or an exempt position. A non-exempt employee is paid on an hourly basis and is eligible to be compensated for actual hours worked over 40 hours in either pay or compensatory time. KDA utilizes compensatory time at one and a half hours for each actual hour worked over 40 hours in the workweek. All overtime hours worked must be authorized in advance by the supervisor. In rare cases, the supervisor may allow the use of paid overtime with approval from the Secretary. Exempt employees are paid a biweekly salary and work the hours necessary to get the job done with no compensatory time accrual or overtime pay for hours worked over 40 hours in a workweek. 

  If you are a non-exempt employee, the following terms apply:

  Paid Leave: Paid leave hours do not count towards the total number of hours worked in a week in determining whether overtime is paid. Paid leave includes all paid time away from work (vacation, sick, holiday, etc.). Kansas Organization of State Employees (KOSE) covered positions have the following exception to the rule: Time in a paid status, but not worked by virtue of legal holiday, shall be considered as hours worked for purposes of administering overtime entitlements.

  Rearranged Time: Supervisors may request that an employee adjust his or her daily work schedule within the work week in order to prevent exceeding 40 hours of work. For example, if you worked 8.5 hours on Monday through Thursday (34 hours), you would only work 6 hours on Friday in order not to exceed 40 hours. This is also known as “equivalent time off.”

  Compensatory Time: Compensatory time is compensation at the rate of one and a half hours off for each hour worked over 40 hours in a work week. For example, if you worked 9 hours Monday-Friday (45 hours), you would earn 7.5 hours of compensatory time that could be taken at a later time. The regulations allow a maximum compensatory leave balance of 240 hours. Hours in excess of the maximum must be paid out. Supervisors may require employees to use compensatory time off within a reasonable time frame.

• Longevity Bonus

  As currently approved by the Kansas Legislature, a longevity bonus is paid to classified regular employees who have at least 10 years of service and were employed with the state prior to June 15, 2008, with no break in service. The compensation is at the rate of $40.00 for each year, and has a 25-year/$1,000 limit. Employees who have more than 25 years continue to be paid at the 25-year limit. The payment is included in the bi-weekly paycheck that contains the employees’ length of service start date. This is normally the date that an employee starts with the state, but could be different if there have been any breaks in service. Unclassified employees are not eligible for a longevity bonus.

• Lunch Breaks

  Employees must take a lunch period of at least 30 minutes. The lunch break should be taken within the middle four hours of an employee’s shift whenever possible.

• Pay Period / Timesheets

  The standard workweek for State employees begins at 12:01 Sunday and ends the following Saturday at midnight. Even though the state utilizes 80-hour pay periods, each of the 40-hour work weeks is separate. Non-exempt employees will report hours worked and/or leave usage in quarter-hour increments. Exempt employees will report hours worked and/or SCK or VAC leave usage in half- or full-day increments. Time sheet procedures will be explained in detail by Human Resources and supervisors. State employees are paid on a bi-weekly basis, every other Friday, unless the Friday falls on a holiday, in which case pay day will be the last working day before the Friday pay date.

  The normal regular deadline for timesheet submittal is the last Friday of the payroll period with a deadline of the following Monday by close of business for supervisors to approve employee timesheets. Emails are sent bi-weekly as friendly reminders of the deadlines. On occasion the deadlines are amended to ensure that sufficient time is provided to Human Resources to process payroll — this is normally due to holiday schedules. Time sheets are entered through the Kansas Employee Self Service Center here. Look at "Time Reporting Codes (TRC)" for the most commonly utilized time reporting codes for your timesheet.

• Pay Plan

  The Office of Personnel Services publishes an hourly pay matrix and a bi-weekly pay matrix. Each classification in the classified employee service is assigned to one of the 42 pay grades on the state’s pay matrix, which starts at Pay Grade 7 and goes to Pay Grade 42. There are 15 steps within each pay grade, starting at Step 4 and ending at Step 18. Unclassified staff, which comprises approximately 94% of the KDA workforce, are not limited by the classified pay matrix. 

• Pay Checks

  Each employee’s compensation is directly deposited into a designated checking or savings account. Employees may designate up to 6 financial institutions with up to 10 accounts each. Direct Deposit forms are available in the Kansas Employee Self Service for those enrolling in or modifying existing direct deposit information. For expense checks, the employee’s direct deposit information is provided by HR to fiscal to ensure deposit of expense funds. Payroll and leave information can be viewed on the Kansas Employee Self-Service Center here and is generally available when payroll is confirmed which is normally the Friday night following the payroll period end date. 

• Payment Upon Separation

  Employees who resign or otherwise separate from KDA shall be compensated for leave as follows:

  • Accumulated vacation leave, up to the maximum number of hours allowed, will be paid in a lump sum on their final paycheck.
  • No compensation shall be paid for any accumulated sick leave except when an employee retires or in the case of a death of an employee who was eligible to retire.
  • When an employee has a balance of shared leave credits at the time of separation, those hours will not be paid to the employee, but shall be returned to the donating employee(s).
  • Compensatory time and holiday compensatory time credits will be paid on their final paycheck.

• Travel Time

  If your position is exempt under FLSA, your salary covers all hours spent traveling on state business. If your position is non-exempt, the compensability of the time you spend traveling on state business depends on the type and duration of the travel involved. For example, one-day special assignments (e.g. training) would allow non-exempt employees to be compensated for all hours spent traveling to and from the special assignment, less the meal period. In the case of overnight travel, those hours spent in travel status until you reach your destination are compensable, less the meal period. Other hours, may be counted if actual work is performed. Contact your Human Resources team for assistance with determining hours in paid travel status. Contact fiscal for information regarding the processing of travel expenses.

• Time Reporting Codes (TRC)

  
  Here is a quick reference guide for the most commonly used time reporting codes:
  

  Code REG	Description Regular hours worked
  HDC	Holiday credit
  VAC	Vacation/annual leave
  SCK	Sick leave/family sick leave
  DDY	Discretionary day
  JRY	Jury duty / court appearance
  FNL	Funeral leave
  MIL	Military leave
  DON	Donor leave
  IWN	Inclement weather
  CME	Comp time earned
  CMT	Comp time taken
  HCP	Comp time for working on holiday or observed day
  HCT	Holiday comp time taken
  HCC	Holiday credit banked
  HDP	Pay for actual hours worked on holiday or observed day
  OTP	Pay for hours actually worked in excess of the FLSA limit