New Payslip Templates!

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Here at PayrollHero we understand that different companies have different ways of doing business. From how you communicate organizational changes, company events and even how you pay your employees.

To allow companies to align their payslips more with their internal culture we have created two new payslip templates. We will now provide; classic, modern and statement payslips.

Classic

Modern

Statement

This should allow you a greater amount of flexibility in how you communicate the payroll output to your employees. If you have any questions please contact support@payrollhero.com

Sign up today – https://signup.payrollhero.com/

Got Problems At Work? Don’t Resign Yet

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working on laptop

It always starts with a feeling. You feel that your current job is not utilizing you to your full potential. Or you feel that your superior is not sharing opportunities where you can apply for a lateral or higher position. Or you feel that it’s okay to be a little more reckless and cut corners on work or incur more lates, absences than usual since they don’t pay attention to you anyway.

Then that feeling turns into something you can’t shake off. Your superior would no longer share or confide work opinions with you. Some of your work responsibilities have been endorsed to a teammate. Instead of commendations, you start getting an infraction or warning letters from HR. You’re getting excluded from meetings you used to attend before. Conversations with colleagues are no longer warm, and people you’re close to are already advising you to look for new job openings instead.

If you have experienced some of these things, it’s more likely that you are on thin ice at work. But don’t resign yet.

Resign or Stay?

If you think resignation is a pragmatic solution, you’re not alone. In fact, most employees opt to quit their jobs when things don’t go their way.

But quitting doesn’t usually solve your problems at work, and it is most likely that you’d be encountering the same issues in another job if you don’t know how to deal with it in your current job.

So before you write up your resignation letter, ask yourself these questions first:

1. Do I have the money to keep me afloat until my next job?

Money is usually a good reason for you to stay right now. It is definitely a solid reason, especially if you are receiving a hefty paycheck or a salary amount that covers the bills and allows you to enjoy certain conveniences.

But for some people, they usually hang on to their current job until they have built enough savings to support them the moment they resign and move on to the next job.

2. Is my unhappiness at work because I am unsatisfied with what I currently do?

While a hefty paycheck is a good motivator, doing a job you hate will obviously burn you out in the long run. If you tried applying for a higher position in the company but got rejected, you should probably think about your current potential and what skills/higher education you need to acquire to be more desirable. Staying put in your current job could be extra points for you if your company values loyalty, so the next best thing to do is to put in extra work on skills improvement.

The best people to assess your potential are:

  • Your current team lead/supervisor
  • HR; and
  • The current team lead/member if the role requires being transferred to a different department.

PayrollHero Daily Pulse

Daily Pulse is a TeamClock iOS beta feature on PayrollHero that measures the team’s KPIs (key performance indicators). Data mined by Daily Pulse could help you and your team lead or supervisor assess your main strengths and improvements needed to be better at your job and be a potential candidate for a position you might want to pursue in the future.

3. Will my stay at my current company open doors for me for my career?

Considering your company’s influence is still an important assessment to make when deciding to stay. Staying in your current job at a top company for a while longer is a good idea, but it doesn’t mean you have to rely on your company’s reputation alone.

Build a referral network of people — establish relationships with people who can speak to your core personality and strengths and your on-the-job conduct and work-related skills. While your supervisor or team lead could be a perfect character reference, try to seek managers or executives who can attest to your work ethic.

4. Do I need to stay to master certain skill sets that would be great for my career progression?

It’s tough to be positive about your current job when you don’t like to do it or feel that you are not progressing from it. But think about your current job as an opportunity to master skills that would be vital to your career progression.

In order to do so, you first need to change the way how you view your work. For example, taking calls may not look like a skill to you, but being a master of customer service is. Inputting data might be a mundane task, but being an Excel or spreadsheet expert could be the very edge you’ll have a future position you want.

5. Are you feeling uncertain about your job security?

People who have received infractions at work typically take the easier way out by preempting HR’s move to fire you and resigning instead. This way, they avoid getting bad marks on their record that could affect their employment chances for a different company.

On the other hand, there is a way to turn your situation around. We’ll let you in an industry secret: it’s cheaper for even big companies to keep people than hiring new staff to replace you. Unless your company does not foresee the need of keeping the position or would need to lay off people, or you have done something that accounts as a criminal offense, they will want to work with you to see to it that you’d remain to be an effective member of the team.

If you’ve been missing too many work days, messed something up at work, or been incurring too many lates, it’s always best to reach out and have an open, frank communication with your supervisor or team lead. This way, you can both work out a plan on how to overturn your infractions and improve your current performance.

PayrollHero Analytics

Your supervisor or team lead can provide a data-backed assessment of your work performance using Analytics, a PayrollHero tool. Analytics provides insights about employee attendance so you and your supervisor or team lead could come up with strategies like flexible or behavior-centric scheduling and site assignment.

Final Words

People flounder in their jobs every now and then, so not doing great at work is not a unique problem. The best thing for you to do if you are in this position is to establish first what you really want to do, assess steps on how to get there and tough it out to get a solid handle on things in your job you don’t really like. There’s no point in resigning if you’re jumping into a new one that you end up regretting over.

At PayrollHero, we believe in creating a happy workplace for both employees like you and your boss. We develop products and features specifically designed to create an environment where you can reach your potential to do not just great things for your company, but also to your career.

How Do You Maintain Team Discipline During The Holidays?

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Team Discipline

Managing a team especially in the last quarter of the year can be a problem. Aside from dealing with daily tasks such as attendance, absences, shift schedules, leaves, and schedule adjustments, you’d also have to make sure that you are providing discipline and motivation. And more than often, it can be very difficult to provide these especially in the months where attrition rate is higher than the rest of the year.

The work is no joke, especially for companies who are in the growth or expansion phase like in the business process outsourcing industry. According to a recent labor statistics report, the turnover rate of jobs in Metro Manila alone for Q3 2016 is at 3.67 percent since 2011. When you compare it to Q2 2016 (at 3.20 percent) and Q2 2016 (2.30 percent), the increase is pretty significant.

Traditional and Progressive Discipline

In a typical organization, traditional discipline involves building enough documentation of the erring employee’s actions to justify a disciplinary action. The communication style is similar to how a parent scolds a kid for eating dessert before a meal and is usually uncomfortable. It’s also time-consuming as well, considering the number of sit-downs a superior would need to allow time to discuss the infraction.

In the last few years, HR managers prefer this popular approach: progressive discipline. Progressive discipline involves four steps (verbal warning, written warning, final written warning or suspension, and termination) to address disciplinary problems like tardiness, excessive absences, or infractions that affect team productivity.

team discipline

Great Work Cultures breaks down the differences between traditional and progressive discipline.

While there are some good points in traditional and progressive discipline, they both do not always encourage a positive response from erring employees. Even with drawing up a standard warning letter can already build animosity, more so when you add this particular line (or something similar to this) to legally protect your company in the instance you have to meet out a disciplinary action:

“Failure to correct the problem may result in further disciplinary action, up to and including possible termination.”

Policies are policies, sure, but even the best members of your team or organization might react to a disciplinary action negatively. In the same labor statistics report, people who quit their jobs actually outnumber those who got terminated (7.94 percent to 2.94 percent).

Personal Accountability

There will always be that employee who wants to take advantage of the team and company’s expense. But you wouldn’t want to alienate the rest of the team and foster an environment that could disrupt productivity. So how then can you carry out your HR duties without acting like the “Judge Dredd”? You have to share accountability with your team.

Sharing accountability will make every employee feel part of the team or organization’s success. Showing how your employees can have a hand in working towards specific goals (zero lates and absences, staffing compliance) will make the organization more efficient and productive.

Here are the tools to help you accomplish these:

1. Easier Clock-Ins

selfie-biometrics-PayrollHero

At PayrollHero, your employees can clock in or out via #MyClock Web, TeamClock Web, or TeamClock Chrome App,  #MyClock for iOSand TeamClock for iOS/Android.

Most companies use fingerprint or ID scanners for employees to clock in and out for their shifts. This requires an employee to be physically present to carry this out, and reduces instances of “buddy punching.”

But for growing companies, a convenient and cost-effective way to allow team members to clock in using a web or mobile app. These apps utilize Internet connection and a camera, and is a godsend for those who are physically outside of the office but are on official businesses.

2. Time and Attendance Software

Time and Attendance

Employee clock in devices and apps are usually paired with a time and attendance software that has both an employee and manager interface. Employees can not only check their logins, they can also check any log in discrepancies that could have been resulted in device or software issues and resolve them using the interface in real-time. This eliminates attendance errors that could translate to payroll disputes and encourage shift accountability.

As for HR personnel, most time and attendance software have features that would notify, process and resolve any employee issues or requests. HR can also set up an automated email drip or response whenever an employee sends a request or a response. A feature like this helps foster and maintain open communication without spending so much time crafting every email response.

3. Analytics

team analytics

A time and attendance software like PayrollHero comes with data analytics that could provide real-time productivity metrics to both employee and HR. To the employee, there’s nothing more satisfying than checking out your progress in real time and having access to data that would help meet productivity goals.

HR will not only have access to employee data but will be presented with organizational data that’s easy to interpret. This way, you can spot out employee behaviors, recurring trends, or company issues that you can use to either improve your current company policies or create a highly-receptive employee motivation program.

Final Words

However you see an erring employee, remember that the rest of your team are still responsible adults. They are as much capable as you to address a problem once it is brought to their attention. Traditional and progressive discipline could work, but tools can help build a build a culture of accountability where employees to have the confidence to take charge of finding a solution.

10 things you should know about 13th month

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Interested in PayrollHero? Sign up today and get 90 days free! – USE PROMO CODE 90TTTMBP2018

Excited to receive your 13th-month pay? I am too. But on the HR and Payroll side, it can be a headache to compute and prepare. That’s why your employer some times releases your 13th-month as early as the 15th or 30th of November to comply with the payout deadline.

Here’s everything you need to know about your 13th-month pay:

1. It is a monetary benefit mandated by law.

The 13th month pay is defined as a monetary benefit based of an employee’s basic salary. This monetary benefit is a core general labor standard, with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) as the agency responsible to oversee any compromises in fulfilling the mandated payout.

2. Your 13th month pay is different from your Christmas bonus.

The 13th month pay is considered a bonus mandated by law, while the Christmas bonus is a separate benefit or payout and it depends on your employer whether they’ll dole it out or not. Companies in the Philippines usually give out Christmas bonus due to team or company-wide performance or revenue-sharing.

Unlike the 13th month pay, your Christmas bonus could come in other forms. It could be cash, gift certificate, a Christmas basket, canned goods, extra leaves that could be convertible to cash if unused, or anything of value.

3. Your 13th month pay should be given to you no later than December 24 of every year.

While the law does not stop employers from giving out 13th month pay early, the law requires employers to give the mandatory benefit at least before Christmas day. According to Presidential Decree 851, the main reason why the 13th month was established as a mandatory benefit is for the Philippine labor force to “properly celebrate” the yuletide season and the New Year, and have the opportunity to invest or save.

The great thing about the Philippine Labor Code is that it provides protection from employers who do not comply with the 13th month pay provision. Aside from releasing the 13th month pay, employers are also required to submit a report of compliance to any DOLE branch on or before January 15 the succeeding year. Should your employer fail to pay your 13th month pay, you may file a money claim case with any DOLE branch.

4. Your 13th month pay may not be equivalent to your monthly basic salary.

According to the law, your basic salary should only be earnings or primary payment paid to an employee for services rendered. On the other hand, basic salary does not include:

  • cash equivalent of unused vacation and sick leave credits;
  • cost-of-living-allowances (COLA) granted pursuant to President Decree No. 525 or Letter of Instructions no. 174;
  • overtime;
  • premium;
  • night differential, and
  • holiday pay.

Your 13th month pay should be not less than 1/12 of the total basic salary you earned within the calendar year. This means your 13th month pay is monthly basic compensation computed pro-rata according to the number of months (or days) you have worked in your company.

Example:
Juan earns a basic salary at Php15,000 per month at company ABC. He has been working for 10 months in the company. As such, Juan stands to receive:

(Php15,000 X 10 months) / 12= Php12,500.00

If Juan has any absences or lates during the month, the pay equivalent of those should be deducted from basic salary first before determining the 13th month pay.

5. You may not be able to receive your 13th month pay.

According to the law, the following are not allowed to receive 13th month pay:

(b) Employers already paying their employees 13th month pay or more in a calendar year or its equivalent at the time of this issuance;
(c) Persons in the personal service of another in relation to such workers; and
(d) Employers who are paid on purely commission, boundary, or task basis, and those who are paid a fixed amount for performing a specific work, irrespective of the time consumed in the performance thereof, except where the workers are paid on piece-rate basis in which case the employer shall grant the required 13th month pay to such workers.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III noted in an interview a rank-and-file employee nonetheless should still receive 13th month pay regardless of the way how his or her wages are paid or the nature of his or her employment as long as they have worked for at least one month. This is also stressed in the DOLE handbook.

6. You can actually view how much you stand to redeem your 13th month pay on your payslip.

Depending on how the payment has been set up, the 13th month redeemable is taken from 1/12th of your monthly basic pay worked. The figure from the previous month is them added to next month’s redeemable, and the next month and so on.

For this example, the employer used base pay to calculate an employee’s 13th month pay redeemable:

First Payslip PH 13th Month Pay

On the second payslip, the redeemable is then added to the computed redeemable for the second month, as shown here:

second slip PH 13th month pay

Should your employer use the gross pay to determine your 13th month pay, the gross pay will include allowances and payments payable to gross and then will be divided by 12. This is actually great, because your employer will be giving you a portion of the benefits or any multiplier on top of your basic pay for your 13th month pay.

Your payslip will also show when you should expect your 13th month pay. In this case, the employee from this example will receive the full 13th month on December 15.

7. Maternity leave benefit are not included in the computation of 13th month pay.

Maternity leave benefit is a benefit employed women claim as a member of SSS (Social Security Service). Even if you receive money during your maternity leave, you technically have not rendered work and earned your keep during your maternity leave. As such, Payroll will not consider the number of days on maternity leave as a factor to compute your 13th month pay.

8. Your 13th month pay is not subject to tax, except for some people.

Republic Act 10653 states that gross benefits not more than Php82,000 received by employees and officials of both public and private companies or entities will not be subject to tax. If you’re a web developer or someone in a managerial or director position in your company, this provision might not apply to you.

9. Resigned or terminated employees can still get their 13th month pay.

The Philippine Labor Code is pro-employee, and has provisions that cover those who resigned voluntarily or whose services has been terminated any time before the 13 month payment. Computation for the benefit is still the same, but it will be in proportion to the number of days a resigned employee has rendered.

10. You may want to check with Payroll about upcoming tax deficits.

Yes, this is a thing. You may have heard of tax refund, but you might also incur a tax payable if the tax withheld is less than the tax due on your annual gross compensation income. This is possible because of adjustments to your withholding tax. Payroll will usually have an updated Withholding Tax Tables on hand from the Bureau of Internal Revenue and could help you determine if there is a tax deficit ahead of the end of year computation.

Any tax deficiency will usually be deducted on the first or second pay of the succeeding year. The employer is required by law to give a tax refund or secure the deficit not later than January 25. If you already have plans for your 13th month, it’s best to check first if you have a tax deficit to avoid getting a significant deduction on the month where you’re probably broke because of the holiday celebration.

Final Thoughts

Your 13th-month pay may be a great addition to your income. To be able to maximize your expected receivable, avoid coming in late or not coming in to work. If you have to be absent for work, take advantage of your company’s leave credits or emergency leave policy to ensure you have a perfect attendance. It’s also great to pay attention to other aspects of your payslip, like your withholding tax, to anticipate any tax deficits and use your 13th month pay to cover this deductions in your first or second paycheck of the succeeding year.

Instant access sign up is now live

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When building PayrollHero we knew the complexity of Philippines’ payroll intimately. Our co-founders Mike and Steve were running a BPO in the Philippines at the time and were experiencing the pains of running payroll first hand.

They asked their network of business owners who operated businesses in the Philippines how they dealt with payroll. It turned out that they experienced the same problems!

Mike and Steve knew there had to be a better solution. So, having a background in building successful software companies, they decided to build an internal tool to solve the problems they were experiencing.

A few months later, the same people they’d reached out to before started asking how they had solved their payroll problems. Our founders showed the new tool to their friends and the reactions were overwhelming positive. Thus PayrollHero was born.

So we built PayrollHero from the ground up to deal with the complexities of DOLE, and it’s unique rules. We understand that different businesses have different approaches to generating payroll, and our software has a level of customizability that is rivalled by no other to deal with this.

“Not every business needs complex payroll software … our new plan provides a very simple solution at a very affordable price.”

But, we also realize that not every business needs complex payroll software. So we have spent a considerable amount of time creating a simplified version of our application.

The new plan is ideally suited for

  • If you require your employees to clock in/out for work
  • The attendance of your employees directly effects their payroll
  • You follow DOLE for managerial and rank and file employees
  • Currently waste time transcoding biometric data or manual time cards for payroll processing
  • You would like a centralized database for tracking employee’s personal information

Simple payroll with an enterprise level engine

Although we have made it simpler to use as setup, you can still harness all of the powerful features that we have built for the system. Including our brand new and improved 13th month feature, overtime & official business requests plus loads of other great features. Our new plan provides a very simple solution at a very affordable price.”

Our leave management add on integrates seamlessly, and our HR A.I. assistant comes free for all of your employees.

If you’re interested you can learn more about our product here.

Try it now and get 90 days free!

To celebrate our new plan we are giving all new customers 90 days to try it and pay nothing. All you need to do is sign up using the code BP90102017 to receive your extended trial.

So, what are you waiting for? Why not sign up today?

HR/Payroll Or A Business Owner? Here’s A Guide To Prepare For SSS Contribution Hike

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The 1.5% SSS contribution hike to 12.5% on employee’s monthly salary is expected to be implemented in January 2018. The move to increase the contribution was largely credited to President Rodrigo Duterte approving the two-stage monthly pension increase of Php2,000 to retirees. Since March, each SSS pensioner gets an additional Php1,000 on top of their previous monthly receivable from the agency. To cover the additional pensioner money, Duterte also approved the plan to increase member contribution rate of 11 percent by adjusting the yearly by 1.5 percent until it reaches 17 percent by 2020.

While this is a great thing for paying SSS members, the move is just one of the many financial and payroll adjustments needed to be done correctly by entrepreneurs and HR staff.

Employer’s Share

The current SSS contribution, which is 11 percent of the employee’s salary, is being shared by the employer (7.37 percent) and employee (3.63 percent). The SSS usually releases an updated contribution table to avoid confusion and overpayment/underpayment.

sss contribution table 2017

SSS Current 2017 Employee-Employer Share Table from SSSguides.com.

Early this year, SSS Chairman Amado Valdez clarified in an interview that while the current setup suggests a 70:30 employer-employee share, it does not mean that the same rate will be used in the upcoming increases.

There is little employer’s feedback publically available regarding the increase, but a trade association chair indicated that the increase could make a significant impact on operational costs. Employers Confederation of the Philippines chairman emeritus Donald Dee expressed in a statement that while the association supports the intention behind the contribution increase, there should be a study conducted regarding the matter. He also said the average cost spent per employee of the association is already higher than other companies because they spend more money on other benefits and not just SSS.

Ahead of the SSS contribution hike, it is best for companies (via HR and Payroll departments) to anticipate the changes they would need to avoid over or underpayment. Here are a few things you need to prepare ahead of the changes:

1. Make sure all employees have an online account.

The SSS has an online facility where all employees, employers, and other members access contributions and membership records, perform online transactions, request for copies, and set appointments with their SSS servicing branch. This means they can check online instead of having to talk to your HR Team about these details.

It’s easy to direct incoming employees who have yet to have an SSS number to set up their online account. For employees who have forgotten login details of their online account, they can simply do a password reset or email at onlineserviceassistance@sss.gov.ph.

2. Make sure your employer online details are also updated on your SSS online account.

SSS aims to have almost every transaction done online, which is great for HR and Payroll who needed to keep tabs on pertinent employer and employee information. On the other hand, hard changes like change in business address or company type will still require you to provide supporting documents that are needed to be submitted at a physical branch.

3. You would still need to go to SSS to pay for the contributions

It would be nice to be able to pay for your employee contributions online. As of the moment, you would still have to make the payments directly at a physical branch with the following:

  • Accomplished SSS Form R-5 or also known as the Employer Contributions Payment Form
  • Accomplished SSS Form R-3 Contributions Collection List
  • Cash or Check totaling amount payable to SSS

4. You would need to be diligent in keeping employee contributions updated

The R3 form is a list of all contributions collected for employee-members. HR (with Payroll assistant), need to submit this form every month or every quarter. You would need to submit this along with the USB file or the printed version and copies of the Transmittal Certification and Employee File per month.

For some companies experiencing high attrition or is expanding its workforce at a rapid pace, it can be quite taxing to prepare an accurate R3 form. It’s easy to overlook or prepare all required documents in one go and forget to include updated information that could lead to underpaying or overpaying SSS contributions. Moreover, it can also be complex when there are changes in the company that require salary adjustments.

Here are some tips for you to make this process easier to manage:

  • Pay on or before the 10th day of the following month. As your employees have different SSS numbers, it will be easier for HR and Payroll to collect and prepare updated documents.
  • Pay SSS contributions with the SSS branch who handles your company’s records. It can be easier for HR/Payroll or business owners to pay the contributions at a nearby branch, but it would be much easier to deal with the branch that can access your records and handle application concerns or requests faster.
  • Get an HR/Payroll software who can handle repeated SSS processes. The SSS’s file generator program can be a frustrating tool to do, and some free R3 file generators online may not be reliable or safe.

An HR/Payroll software like PayrollHero can not only generate the reports you need for SSS contributions.

SSS R3 Form PayrollHero

Generate SSS R3 forms and automate mundane HR and payroll functions with our 30-day free trial. You can also download government forms here.

5. Inform employees about the changes in SSS policies and increases in their benefits.

HR is duty-bound to not only keep employees informed about SSS policies but also inform any effects on their payslips. While a memo or an email may suffice to inform employees, HR and Payroll will still get questions from employees about deductions on their payslips down to the last cent. Unless you have an HR or Payroll assistant to assist in addressing these type of questions, handling repeated inquiries is a waste of your time and company resources.

Final Thoughts

As the government intends to make frequent increases on SSS contributions over the next five years, you may want to invest your time and effort now to make sure your HR and Payroll teams have the right processes and systems in place to deal with these increases. Streamlining HR and Payroll tasks will ensure that SSS contributions are correct and updated with minimal effort and use of resources.

SSS Contribution Increase 2018: Why It’s Actually Good for You

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In early 2017, the Social Security System (SSS) announced that it intends to increase the contribution rate for the national pension fund. According to the agency, the contribution per SSS member will pay 15 percent more than the usual amount, which is around Php15 to P240 extra every month.

At the moment, the implementation of the SSS contribution increase was postponed until 2018. If the implementation went according to plan, you would have seen the effect on your payslip last May. SSS president and chief executive officer Emmanuel F. Dooc said the agency wanted to wait for the tax reform to be implemented first so pension fund members can use the money saved on taxes to offset the contribution increase.

With the impending contribution increase, you’d probably wonder if this will have a real-life effect on your take-home pay. Here are 5 things to know about the SSS contribution increase and why it’s s actually a good thing for you.

1. The contribution increase will help extend the life of the SSS fund.

Why is this important: You are ensuring there’s enough money for SSS to pay your pension when you’re eligible to claim it.

Before we delve into this further, let’s brush up on what the SSS fund is exactly.. The SSS fund functions as a source of funding to provide social benefits, including your pension, that supports its contributing members.

In order for the account to not run out of money, the group needs to:

  • admit new members who are willing to contribute to the account, and/or
  • increase the contribution collected from existing members

As members claim their payout from the SSS fund, there’s also a possibility that the account will run out of money sooner than expected.

And we can see this from the actions taken early this year. During his campaign trail, then-presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte promised to increase the pension receivables of over two million retirees. After winning the presidential election, Duterte approved the contribution hike, resulting in the SSS fund’s life getting shortened from 2042 to 2032. If the increase does not go through, there is a possibility people who will claim or retire after 2032 will not be able to receive their pension.

2. The fresh injection of money means more benefits for you.

Why this is important: Expanded maternity benefits and unemployment benefits.

At the moment, an SSS member can avail the following benefits:

  • Cash allowance to cover the number of days absent due to injury or sickness
  • Maternity benefit
  • Retirement benefit that would come in either a monthly pension or lump sum payment
  • Disability cash benefit that would come in either a monthly pension or lump sum payment
  • Death and funeral benefits
  • Eligibility for a salary or business loan
  • Eligibility for financial assistance or mortgage loan

Recently, the SSS has said it is considering to offer more benefits for its members once the increase is implemented. This means expanding the allowed number of leaves from 60 to 120 days (and improved cash benefits), relaxed restrictions on childbirth and miscarriage, and changes to the maximum coverage amount, among other things. Moreover, the new funds from the contribution increase and the agency’s investments could also introduce a benefit that would financially assist members who are recently unemployed. If the contribution increase pushed through back in May, the agency was confident to declare that such additional benefits would have been made available to its members in the same year.

3. The contribution increase could also mean more pension payout.

Why this is important: Who doesn’t want more money for retirement?

To understand why is this so, let’s discuss how SSS computes your pension. Under the current law, SSS computes your pension based on two things:

  • The number of contributions you made as a member, and
  • the total amount of the contributions that have been paid

The agency then computes the average of all of your contributions from the date of your coverage as a member or compute the average of your contributions in the last five years. Whichever is higher, this will be the amount the SSS will use to compute for your pension.

Some enterprising members opt to contribute the maximum rate as long as they can afford it.

However, there are at least a couple of loopholes in the SSS that allows you to pay a higher contribution amount allowed by law to increase their computed pension amount. For example, a member who earns Php15,000 a month pays Php110 for his SSS contribution monthly. He then decides to increase his contribution six years before retirement to Php1,760 a month. This then leads him to receive a lifetime monthly pension of Php9,900 a month. Unfortunately, this is not something the current proposed laws would address.

4. The increase has a minimal effect on your take-home pay.

Why is this so: Your employer shares the burden of your contribution.

SSS members who are employed only shoulder one-third of the calculated contribution, while your employer shares two-thirds of it.

Once the increase is implemented, the total contribution will climb from 11 to 12.5 percent. The implementation will also see the increase in maximum monthly salary credit from Php16,000 to Php20,000.

Insurance and banking comparison experts GoBear created a computation table. It clearly shows that employers will take the brunt of the increase. When you think about it, the contribution hike essentially forces your employer to invest more in you.

But what if you are a self-employed or voluntary member? Well, it’s not that bad as well. Considering the fact that most of us are really bad when it comes to saving or investing money on ourselves, the SSS contribution increase is simply one way to change our attitude about money.

5. The SSS plans to introduce more increases in the next five years.

This means: Expect more annual contribution increases.

SSS President and CEO Emmanuel Dooc see these annual increases as a good thing for people who are aiming to increase the pension amounts they can claim in the future. Dooc added they aim to increase the member contribution rate from 11 percent to 17 percent over a  six-year period.

Although the debate about the increases is still ongoing, let’s note the fact millennials make up a third of the Philippine population, and are expected to make up 75% of the workforce by 2030. Add that to the number of workers retiring, and you have a social services situation that could put a strain on the SSS fund. Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno himself said earlier in an interview that an adjustment in member contribution rates will allow the fund provide better benefits, higher pension amounts, and services as cost of living and pension and benefit claims increases.

Final Thoughts

The SSS contribution increase ensures the long-term viability of the fund, provide more benefits and increase the pension amount you will receive upon retirement. Even if the increase will be implemented, the proposed collection amount will not really have an effect on your take-home pay, more so when the tax reform will take effect. Moreover, the increase is simply stage one of the SSS’s plans to revitalize the fund and improve the benefits and services it offers to members.

Are you still not convinced why there’s a need to increase the contributions? If you are willing to take on a high-risk, high-return investment like stocks, mutual funds, real estate, and even in a business you don’t understand, why not bet on a sure thing instead? The SSS fund is a government-backed fund that’s mandated by law to support you for a lifetime.

At the end of the day, it might be better to put a little more of your hard-earned money on a secured investment.

Philippines: Minimum Wage Increase

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The Philippine government have recently announced a change to the daily minimum wage rates in the National Capital Region. The minimum wage rate for non-agriculture employers will be ₱512.00. This is an increase of ₱21. No change was made to the cost of living adjustment.

Minimum wage increase for the National Capital Region effective October 5th, 2017

For more information about this update you can check out the wage order at the department of labor and employment website. – http://www.nwpc.dole.gov.ph/pages/ncr/cmwr.html

Updated: Leave Management

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We’re all about automation here at PayrollHero, so we’ve added some new features that will help you automate your leave policies. These will be available immediately for all existing and new Leave Management customers.

Require Advance Notice for Leave Requests

Companies need to plan their workforce and resources carefully. This can some times be a careful balancing act, especially if your employees are requesting time off.

To combat this some companies have policies that stipulate the amount of notice required for a leave request. This helps to ensure they have the right coverage when they need it most.

To that end, we’ve added a new feature to our leave management that allows you to set the notice required. This can be set on a per leave basis. Maybe your policy isn’t as clear cut as “you must provide 10 days notice.” That’s fine, with our system you can add tiers to your notice period.

Delay the start of leave accruals

It’s not uncommon to reward leaves to employees after they have served a certain period of time at your company. This maybe their probationary period, or perhaps the territory you operate in has laws that stipulate what this should be. Our Leave Management System now allows you to choose when you would like your leave balances to begin accruing for your employees.

Prorate the first month of leaves accrued

You may award employees a certain amount of leaves for each month of service they have provided to your company. In fact this is an extremely common practice globally. However, employees don’t always start on the first day of the month.

Now our leave accrual system will automatically calculate the correct amount of leaves to award in the first month. This is based on the standard leave accrual amount divided by the number of days in the month multiplied by the number of days worked. We round this to the nearest 0.25.

Allow leaves to expire

Another common practice is to expire leaves that were not consumed by the employee.To help with this we’ve added a new feature that allows you to add an expiration date to your leave types. This can also be configured individually on each leave type.

If you have any questions or you’d like to learn more just click the chat button at the bottom right of the page or contact us at support@payrollhero.com

Introducing Overtime and Official Business Requests

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Today we’re launching two new features to our customers. Now your employees will be able to make overtime and official business requests, all powered by our new A.I. assistant Lucy.

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Lucy and our new features are available to all our existing customers completely free of charge. 

To get these features sign up for Lucy and have your employees start talking to her. If you are not using Lucy already you can join our open beta by contacting support@payrolllhero.com or filling in the questionnaire below.