September 7 – 11, 2009 is National Payroll Week, a national awareness which coincides with the celebration of Labor Day and focuses public attention on America’s workers and the payroll professionals who make sure they receive their paychecks. 

State payroll processing
Payroll for state general government employees is processed through a central system known as the Human Resource Management System (HRMS).

Interesting facts

• HRMS produced 1,601,259 paychecks in 2008:
  • 1,439,378 ACH payments (direct deposit) 
  • 161,881 warrants (paper paychecks)
• The paychecks consisted of:
  • $2,283,757,566.58 - Net pay
  • $2,240,604.240.26 - Other deductions payroll offices managed, reconciled, input, and distributed on behalf of state employees
• This represented a total of $4,524,361,806.84  ($4.5 billion)

 

Payroll professionals strive for accuracy
When an error occurs, it results in a lockout and the employee must be paid outside of HRMS. This is a very rare occurrence, considering the number of paychecks processed every year. 

• Total paychecks in 2008 in HRMS: 1,601,259
• Total lockouts in 2008 in HRMS: 221 (average 9 per pay period)
• Percentage of employees paid within HRMS: 99.986%
• Percentage of employees paid outside HRMS: 0.014%