Payroll
Payroll Services serves the College's diverse customer base by providing accurate and timely compensation to all staff, faculty, and student employees in an efficient manner. We are committed to maintaining the most current understanding of federal, state, and college regulations regarding payroll in order to provide accurate information.
We are located in the Central Services building in the Human Resources Suite on the first floor and are available Monday–Friday from 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m. Questions can also be sent to our email.
Payroll resources
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Learn about the implications, risks, and necessary actions when declining direct deposit for your payments.
Direct deposit is a safe, proven, and confidential method of receiving a payment. Money is electronically transferred from an organization into an employee’s checking or savings account. Montgomery College employees are highly encouraged to elect direct deposit for Payroll Payments (regular biweekly pay) and/or Expense Payments (reimbursements for approved expenses).
If you have chosen to decline to elect direct deposit via Payment Elections in Workday or cancel an existing direct deposit election, then you will receive a live check for all payments due to you, and you must certify that you understand the following risks and will abide by the applicable corrective actions:
Delayed Delivery
All live checks are mailed on Thursdays (biweekly payroll) and Fridays (expense reimbursements) via the U.S. Postal Service. Montgomery College has no control over how long it takes USPS to deliver mail or whether that delivery will be accurate. Make sure your mailing address is correct in Workday.
Stale/Voided Checks
A check becomes stale and therefore void if it is not deposited within 90 days of the issue date. Deposit checks in a timely manner. Voided checks must be reissued on a regular on- or off-cycle pay date.
Periodic Audits Requiring In-Person Pick-Up
To mitigate risk and reduce fraud, employees who receive live checks will be required to pick up checks in person at a designated location and present government-issued identification to confirm their identity and receive their paycheck.
Lost/Stolen Check: Not Cashed
If you do not receive your check within ten (10) business days and if your check has been confirmed as not yet cashed or deposited, you can request a replacement check. Replacement checks will not be processed before the 10-business day window has concluded.
Lost/Stolen Check: Cashed but not Received
If you do not receive your check within ten (10) business days and if your check has been confirmed as cashed or deposited by someone other than you, you will need to complete an affidavit for the College’s bank, confirming that you did not receive, cash, or deposit the check. Replacement checks will not be processed until a full investigation is completed and the funds are deemed fraudulently cashed by the bank. Montgomery College cannot reissue payment until the bank authorizes us to do so.
Discover the necessary steps and timelines for reporting and resolving fraudulent activity related to your payments.
If you do not receive your check within ten (10) business days, and if your check has been confirmed as cashed or deposited by someone other than you, then you must report the fraud to HRSTM who will coordinate with Office of Business Services (OBS) and the College’s financial institution for restitution. You will need to complete an affidavit for the College’s bank, confirming that you did not receive, cash, or deposit the check. Replacement checks will not be processed until a full investigation is completed by our financial institution and the funds are deemed fraudulently cashed by the bank. Montgomery College cannot reissue payment until the bank authorizes us to do so. This process can take up to 45 business days.
If your paycheck was deposited into your bank account before you were informed about fraudulent activity on your account, then you must report the fraud to your financial institution for restitution. Many times, they are able to move the funds from the compromised account to a new account, but if this is not possible, the employee must work with their bank to send the funds back to the College so we can reissue them to a new account. We cannot reissue payment until we receive the original deposit back. This process can vary from bank to bank, but typically is settled in no more than three (3) business days.
As a reminder, having direct deposit is a safe, proven, and confidential method of receiving a payment. Money is electronically transferred from an organization into an employee’s checking or savings account. Montgomery College employees are highly encouraged to elect direct deposit for Payroll Payments (regular biweekly pay) and/or Expense Payments (reimbursements for approved expenses) and it takes much less time to resolve issues involving bad accounts or fraud than with live checks.
View the Payment Elections job aid (English, (PDF, 
) Spanish (PDF, ) ) for assistance.
Student employees should understand their eligibility for an exemption from paying FICA taxes during the academic year.
General Standards
FICA (Social Security and Medicare) taxes do not apply to services performed by students employed by a school, college, or university where the student is pursuing a course of study.
Exemption from FICA tax is provided to Montgomery College student employees (i.e., student assistants and federal work study), who meet specific criteria regarding academic enrollment and number of hours worked per week. Student employees who fail to meet the specific criteria are subject to the FICA tax for hours worked.
Under the IRS Safe Harbor guidelines, exemption from FICA tax withholding is allowed during the academic year for any student employed on an hourly basis who:
- is enrolled half-time, with at least six (6) credit hours,
- is not a full-time employee,
- is not a professional employee,
- is not a career employee eligible to receive certain employment benefits or participate
in certain employment benefit plans (e.g., annual time off, statutory retirement,
tuition waiver), and
- works no more than 20 hours per week as a student assistant, and no more than 12 hours per week for a federal work study assignment.
To qualify, the student must have sufficient credit hours recorded in Banner Student to reach at least half-time status for the relevant academic term at the close of business on the last day of the payroll period. The relevant academic term is defined as the academic term (fall or spring) that is in session on the last day of the payroll period, according to the official start and end dates published in the College calendar.
Note that international students are always exempt from FICA tax, regardless of enrollment status.
Graduating Students
A student who is less than half-time will still meet the IRS safe harbor guidelines if the student is graduating. That is, an individual who is in the last semester or term of a course of study and is enrolled for the number of credit hours needed to complete the degree requirements will still be regarded as at least a half-time student, even if the student is enrolled in less than half the number of credit hours required of full-time students.
Summer Break
With the exception of international students, all other student employees working during the summer months (i.e., the 12 weeks and six (6) pay dates occurring after the end of the closing academic year and the beginning of the new academic year) will not be exempt from FICA tax during the summer, regardless of enrollment status.
Learn about the process and requirements for setting up and canceling statutory deductions.
When Montgomery College receives written documentation from any government agency regarding instructions to set up statutory deductions for garnishments or support orders, or from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regarding mandatory Federal withholding instructions known as lock letters, where employers are instructed to “lock” the maximum Federal withholding deductions until further notice, we cannot cancel the deduction(s) until we receive documentation from the issuing agency instructing us to cancel them.
Please contact the HR Help Desk at HRSTM@montgomerycollege.edu or 240-567-5353 if you have any questions.
Frequently Asked Questions
) . - The employee’s earnings included non-taxable income items like a vehicle allowance.
- The employee participated in a company-sponsored retirement plan like a 403(b) and/or 457(b).
- The employee participated in a company health insurance plan that is a pre-tax deduction.
- Non-exempt employees are eligible for overtime pay, hourly wages, and must complete a biweekly timesheet. As the name implies, they are not exempt from the requirements of this law and employers must comply. This means that once a non-exempt employee works over 40 hours per week, their employer must pay them at a rate of 1.5 times the employee’s hourly rate. Hourly employees are typically paid only for hours worked and are required to track all hours worked, often to a set increment of an hour, and use of accrued leave in a timesheet.
- An exempt employee is not required to be paid overtime pay, is excluded from hourly minimum wage requirements, and are not required to complete a biweekly timesheet. As the name implies, these employees are also exempt from the requirements of hourly time tracking under FLSA. One of the main differences between exempt employees and non-exempt employees is that exempt employees receive fixed compensation or a salary for the work they perform, not for the specific number of hours worked, while non-exempt employees earn an hourly wage and are paid for hours worked.
If there is an error in pay, it is most likely that it stems from an issue in what the earnings and/or benefits deductions should be and therefore the payroll team is not always best suited to diagnose or correct the problem. In addition, hourly employee pay is driven by Time Entry and Time Off and therefore if hours are incorrect, Time Entry is the first place that employees check for errors that may have caused incorrect pay.
Please contact us by sending an email to the Payroll Services Team your concerns, and we would be happy to assist or connect you to the appropriate team for support.
- Overtime Straight is paid overtime that is equal to an employee’s hourly rate. OTS may occur if an employee has more than 40 hours in one week, but some of those hours are from time off.
- Overtime Premium is paid overtime that is time and a half (x1.5) of an employee’s hourly rate. Hours will appear in the weekly summary as Overtime Premium when an employee has worked or worked and used a combination of eligible time off for more than 40 hours in one workweek.
- Overtime Over Regular is typically only applicable to part-time employees and refers to hours worked over the regularly scheduled hours. Overtime over regular hours are paid at the normal hourly rate.
- Overtime Hours will only appear for employees who are in a Short-Term Casual Temporary position. This is overtime type is equivalent to Overtime Over Regular and Overtime Premium, if applicable.
- For taxes, employees will potentially see federal taxes, social security and medicare taxes, and state and local taxes.
- For deductions, employees have pre-tax deductions for eligible health plan premiums and retirement contributions and post-tax deductions for other benefits plans, like life insurance and voluntary plans, and union dues. Some employees may also be required to pay additional taxes on tuition benefits that exceed the annual IRS limit.
) .
Employees in need of additional assistance for a W-2 form from a previous tax year, should contact the Payroll Team.
Employees in need of additional assistance for a 1095-C form from a previous tax year, should contact the Benefits Team.
) on how to sign up for direct deposit. (Esto también está disponible en español (PDF, ) .)Additional benefits of using direct deposit include:
- Timely depositing of checks, sometimes visible the day before the pay date
- Reduced time required for checks to clear
- Reduced chance of delayed delivery of checks and losing or having them stolen
- No need to spend time visiting a bank or ATM to deposit checks
- Payments can be divided automatically among multiple designated employee accounts