Reference: Compensation Plan Comparisons

Salary

Use to associate eligible salaried employees with the appropriate base salary compensation elements.

As part of the Hire transaction.
As part of another staffing transaction (promote, demote, transfer).
As a result of using the
Request Compensation Change
task.

Workday automatically feeds the compensation to payroll for the regular pay period payment.

Workday pays employees the indicated amount.

Hourly

Use to associate eligible hourly employees with an hourly rate amount.

As part of the Hire transaction.
As a result of using the
Request Compensation Change
task.
As part of another staffing transaction (promote, demote, transfer).

Workday sends the compensation and actual hours to payroll for the regular pay period.

Workday uses the indicated hourly amount to calculate how much to pay employees in their regular pay checks.

*Merit

Use to group employees (using eligibility rules) who are going to get a change to their base pay, and optionally, a promotion or additional adjustments. You can also add bonus and stock components to merit plans.

As part of the Hire transaction.
As part of another staffing transaction (promote, demote, transfer).
Through the
Rollout Compensation Plans to Employees
task.
As a result of using the
Request Compensation Change
task.

You can create a specific merit plan, which generates a request for each person in the plan to get a base pay change. A change to the base pay amount automatically flows to payroll.

Simply being in a merit plan doesn't affect pay. Workday changes the employee's compensation based on approved changes made during the compensation review process..

*Bonus

Use to group people together who are all going to get a bonus payment at the same time.

As part of the Hire transaction.
As part of another staffing transaction (promote, demote, transfer).
Through the
Rollout Compensation Plans to Employees
task.
As a result of using the
Request Compensation Change
task.

A compensation review process with bonus awards generates a request for each person enrolled in the plan to get a portion of the bonus pool. The manager or administrator then determines the amount for each person and whether to pay the target amount in 1 payment or in predefined installments (tranches). You can also load these amounts using the EIB. The approved bonuses automatically flow to payroll.

Simply being in a bonus plan doesn't affect pay. At the end of the compensation review process, Workday passes the bonus amount or tranche to payroll.

*One-Time

Use to give an employee a payment for something such as an incentive bonus.

Workday doesn't assign the plan type to the employee but makes it available for assignment.

Request and complete a one-time payment transaction, which automatically flows to payroll for payment.

The result is a payment amount flowing to payroll.

*Period Salary Plan

Use to give an employee extra months, weeks, or days of pay.

As part of the Hire transaction.
As part of another staffing transaction (promote, demote, transfer).
As a result of using the
Request Compensation Change
task.

Workday sends the amount specified in the period salary plan to payroll for inclusion with regular pay.

Workday sends the payment amount to payroll.

*Commission

Use to store the target amount for commission.

As part of the Hire transaction.
As part of another staffing transaction (promote, demote, transfer).
Through the
Rollout Compensation Plans to Employees
task.
As a result of using the
Request Compensation Change
task.

Workday doesn't pay out commission plans.

This type of plan stores a target amount for assigned employees.

Allowance

Use for compensation paid on a regular basis, such as a monthly cell phone allowance.

As part of the Hire transaction.
As part of another staffing transaction (promote, demote, transfer).
Through the
Rollout Compensation Plans to Employees
task.
As a result of using the
Request Compensation Change
task.

The amount specified in the allowance plan automatically flows to payroll for inclusion with the employee’s regular pay.

The result is an additional amount paid to an employee with their regular pay.

*Stock

Use to group people together who are all going to get a stock grant at the same time.

As part of the Hire transaction.
As part of another staffing transaction (promote, demote, transfer).
Through the
Rollout Compensation Plans to Employees
task.
As a result of using the
Request Compensation Change
task.

Workday doesn't pay out stock plans. You can integrate with a third-party stock administration application to handle vesting and other stock administration needs.

The stock grants based on this type of plan store stock grant details for employees.

*Future Payment Plan

Use alone or consider targets from other bonus or one-time payment plans to pay an employee a target amount. Enables administrator to true up any remaining balance in a final payment at the end of the period.

Administrators can launch a future payment plan, which generates a request for each person enrolled in the plan to get a portion of the bonus pool. The administrator then determines the amount for each person. The approved bonuses automatically flow to payroll.

Simply being in a future payment plan doesn't affect pay. To participate in a future payment plan, assign an employee to the plan and to any other bonus plans relevant for calculating the true up.