This article describes how to set and manage base salaries in Personio.

What is the base salary in Personio?

The base salary is the primary salary component for your employees. They receive it each month either as a fixed salary or as an hourly wage. These differ as follows:

• Fixed salary: Paid monthly as the same amount. It's set as a monthly or annual amount for full-time positions. For part-time, it's adjusted based on actual weekly hours compared to full-time hours.
• Hourly salary: Paid out based on actual hours worked each month.

Set up each employee's base salary in their profile's Salary tab, or import it in bulk.

Learn how to set up and manage these salaries below.

Fixed salaries

Set up fixed salaries

To set up a fixed salary, you need to consider the following:

• Weekly working hours: Set the correct weekly working hours and full-time weekly working hours in the Personal info tab. If weekly hours are not set, the system defaults to a standard of 40 weekly working hours.
• Effective salary: You can only enter the effective salary. The system calculates the base salary (100% salary) using the part-time factor, which is the ratio of weekly working hours to full-time working hours.
• Yearly or monthly cadence: Choose whether to enter salaries as monthly or yearly amounts. It's best to stick with one option to avoid affecting reports. Yearly salaries are divided into monthly payments.

Add a fixed salary

To add a fixed salary for an employee, follow these steps:

1. Go to the employee’s profile and add the weekly hours and the full-time hours to the Personal info tab. 
2. Go to the Salary tab, open the base salary widget, and select fixed salary.
3. Fill in the required details.
4. Save your entry.

You can also add fixed salaries in bulk via an import.

Edit a fixed salary

Depending on the situation, you need to perform the following actions:

Delete a fixed salary

To delete a fixed salary for an employee, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Salary tab and open the base salary widget.
2. In the salary list, hover over salary and click the delete button.
3. Confirm your choice.

Note
▶ If you delete a fixed salary and a previous one exists, the previous salary continues into the future unless you add a new fixed salary or a leave period.
▶ You can’t delete salary changes due to full-time hour adjustments. You need to make adjustments in the employee profile.
▶ If you delete a fixed salary that subsequent salary changes depend on, it deletes all those dependent salaries as well.

Hourly salaries

Set up hourly salaries

To set up an hourly salary, consider the following:

• Work schedule: Add a work schedule with the correct attendance times in the Attendance tab to ensure holidays are paid and employees can track their time. Consider access rights and approval processes.
• Payroll period: If needed, set a separate payroll period for hourly salaries. For example, it can start on the 15th and end on the 14th of the next month.

Add an hourly salary

To add an hourly salary for an employee, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Salary tab, open the base salary widget, and select hourly salary.
2. Fill in the required details.
3. Save your entry.

You can also add hourly salaries in bulk via an import.

Edit an hourly salary

Depending on the situation, you need to perform the following actions:

Delete an hourly salary

To delete an hourly salary for an employee, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Salary tab and open the base salary widget.
2. In the salary list, hover over salary and click the delete button.
3. Confirm your choice.

Understand monthly processing for hourly salaries

For employees on an hourly wage, Personio calculates payment by multiplying the hourly rate by hours worked in the payroll period. You can record the hours worked in two ways:

• Through the Salary tab: In the Base salary column, click inside the cell for the current month, enter hours worked, and confirm. This entry overrides any Attendance tab entries for that period, including public holidays.
• Through the Attendance tab: Employees with hourly salaries must track their attendance. Hours needing approval must receive approval for payout. You can review and manually adjust payout amounts in the Salary tab.

Update on full-time hours and salary records

Changes post June 1st 2024

In June 2024, we changed the way full-time hours are registered in Personio. They are now recorded directly on each employee's profile, rather than at the department level. This change affects how salary records are created when adjusting to full-time hours:

• Post-June 1, 2024: If you change to full-time hours after this date, a new salary record is automatically created.
• Until May 31st, 2024: Changes to full-time hours before this date do not automatically create a new salary record. Instead, they update existing future records.

This means that for changes made before June 1, 2024, you need to backdate the effective salary to the exact date when full-time hours changed to create a new salary record. This process ensures accurate salary records without affecting previous salaries.

Example

Existing salary records

Until May 31st, 2024 A retroactive Change happens on 01.01.2019. The full-time hours are changed to from 20 to 40:

After June 1, 2024 A retroactive Change happens on 01.07.2024. The full-time hours are changed to from 20 to 40:

In the first example, the change only impacted already existing future records. Following the change after May 31st 2024, new salary records will be created.

This update was introduced to avoid impacting previous salaries and ensure clarity with the new full-time hours feature. Warning messages may appear in these scenarios to guide you through the process.

For any adjustments, please ensure you follow these guidelines to maintain accurate salary records. If you need assistance, reach out to our support team via Help & Feedback.