Service Pack: California Pay Data Reporting
On March 18, 2021, we updated the system with California Pay Data Reporting functionality. Details are below.
New! California Pay Data Reporting
California law (Government Code Section 12999) requires private employers with 100 or more U.S. employees (and at least one employee in California) to annually submit data on the pay, hours worked, and demographics of their employees to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH). By March 31, employers must submit their reports covering the prior calendar year.
To assist our California customers in this process, we have created a new reporting page and form that can pull in your employee data which you can then use to create a download file. This file allows you to fine-tune your reporting numbers/codes and then electronically submit to the reporting agency via their website.
To use this reporting capability, you must have both the HR and Payroll sub-systems enabled and in use.
Formats for Downloaded Electronic File: California provides two file options that can be uploaded to their website: Excel and CSV. We have provided an Excel download for this. The CSV download will be coming in future release.
Website: This is the California Pay Data Reporting Website for your reference that includes User Guide, FAQ’s, reporting portal, and more: https://www.dfeh.ca.gov/paydatareporting/
Gender: California officially recognizes three genders: female, male, and non-binary. Therefore, employers should report employees’ sex according to these three categories. Non-binary will be available in a future release. Modifications can be made in the electronic file to account for employees claiming non-binary identity and currently categorized as male or female on their employee record. (This is also specified on the fillable form in the system.)
Section I – Employer Information: Can be found and completed directly in the Excel electronic file once it has been created and downloaded. This helps eliminate any issues for multi-establishment reporting when multiple reports need to be combined into a singular file and Employer information in Section I needs to be the same for all combined establishments reports on the singular file.
Wages: Will look at Box 5 on the W-2 (vs. EEO-1 that looks at Box 1). Per User Guide: If any employee has wages not reported in Box 5, as may be the case for an H-2A visa holder for example, use W-2 Box 1 for that employee and note this in the associated remarks field. If Box 5 on W-2 is null, it will pull wages from Box 1. Any manual edits for W-2c can be made on the downloaded file.
Hours: The hours that pull into the Downloaded file are pulling from the hours on pay statements (excluding Memo type earnings codes).
Use of Commas: Per the California DFEH instructions, commas are used to separate columns in a .CSV file. For that reason, do not include additional commas in any of your provided values (names, addresses, comments, etc.). When a comma is entered into any field in Section II.A – Establishment Information, user will receive an “Invalid [Name of Field]. Could not save. Some information entered was not correct. Please fix all errors and try again.” User should remove the prohibited comma character and re-save.
California Pay Data Reporting - Report Page
This is the initial page where you will see all created forms and select Add New to add a new California Pay Data Report. This is accessed under My Team > HR > Forms > Government Forms > California Pay Data. After selecting Add New, you will be brought to the landing page where you can fill out the form, process data, and download a supporting file.
California Pay Data Reporting - Fillable Form
Once you are on the report landing page and have selected Add New, you will see the fillable form. You will complete this form with your establishment information. Tool tips are available to guide you through some of the fields. At the top of the page is an Info note explaining how to handle non-binary identifying individuals. The form is divided into two sections: Section I - Employer Information and Section II.A - Establishment Information (enter your information). Section II.B on the downloaded form will populate based on the data entered after selecting Process Data and filling out the California Pay Data Form Settings.
The Process Data button, when selected, will open a pop-up of settings. This is the same pop-up that will appear as when you select Populate File in the EEO-1 report and the process is the same. Here, you will select the data and use the filters to select which employees should be included in the file. This will also populate Section II.B-Employee Detail in the form.
You can set a date range that will take a snapshot of your workforce for inclusion in the form. A tool tip recommends that you select dates from October 1 through December 31 of the previous year. If you are a multi-EIN company, you can select the proper EIN for the form, and below that setting check if you want to include synchronized employees (those employees being synched between EINs).
If you want to narrow the reporting to include specific cost centers, employee types, or account statuses, those may be set here as well. The system uses the employee's current cost center assignments. Manual adjustments to the downloaded file can be made if employees should be moved to a different cost center establishment. Terminated employees can be included in the snapshot period by checking the Terminated checkbox in the Account Status section in the California Pay Data Form Settings pop-up. It will not include terminated employees prior to the snapshot period.
After saving the settings in the pop-up, a View Details link displays in the fillable form to see which employees are or are not included in the file and why. Select the link to view a pop-up of the employees. The pop-up has a Download button, and when selected, will download a PDF of the employees shown.
Once the form is filled out and saved and ready, you can use the Download File button to create the file used to electronically file on the State of California's website. This will download the Excel file where you can complete Section II.A - Employer Information and make any manual edits as needed to Section IIA -Establishment Information or Section II.A - Employee Detail (for non-binary gender, etc.).
California Pay Data Reporting - Merging for Multi-Establishment to Excel Download
For companies with multi-establishments, you will create multiple forms, process the data for each and then go back to the report page (Team > HR > Forms > California Pay Data) and select all the establishment forms and then download the files. This will merge the data from all your establishments into one downloadable form.
California Pay Data Reporting - Excel Download File
The Excel download file contains the PayDataReport tab, which contains data populated from the fillable form. Additional tabs for instructions and examples are also available.
