We’re having an issue with cash fringe calculations when an employee chooses not to elect insurance coverage.

Here’s our current setup:

• Wage Code is set up for the project

• Union Codes are set up for the project

  • CF (Cash Fringe) code is setup

• Insurance rate is pulled from: Employee File > Pay Rates > Employer Benefit

  • If the employee is in their open enrollment period or opts out of medical insurance, this field is left blank.

Previously, we used Benefit Tier Overrides to enter the difference between the required fringe and the insurance benefit. This setup worked well until we had an employee who didn’t elect any insurance — in that case, the cash fringe calculation is thrown off completely.

Example:

• Employee Rate: $20.00/hr

• Prevailing Wage Rate: $21.58/hr

• Prevailing Wage Fringe Rate: $3.58/hr

Expectation: The employee should receive $21.58/hr base pay + a cash fringe of $3.58/hr, minus any Employer Benefit amount listed (if applicable).

If no Employer Benefit is listed, the employee should receive the full fringe amount as cash. But right now, the system seems to:

• See no amount under Employer Benefit so it pays the Prevailing Wage + Prevailing Fringe as the Wage Rate ($25.16) in this example.  But because we have a benefit tier set up showing as the difference between the Required Fringe and the Insurance Benefit Amount, it also tries to pay out the override amount as a cash fringe.

Has anyone else run into this issue? How are others handling cash fringe calculations for employees who waive benefits?  Or how are you setting up the cash fringe amounts to calculate?

Thanks in advance!