What is the COVID-19 Wage Supplement?
The wage supplement is a financial assistance packaged given by the government through Malta Enterprise to some of the many companies which have been affected by the ongoing pandemic. This ensures that the wages and salaries are fully or partly covered by the supplement to ensure employees are paid and remain employed even during these trying times.
How do I include the Wage Supplement on Buddy?
If you are receiving a wage supplement for your employees, you will most likely have one of two scenarios. We go through these scenarios both in the video (recommended to watch) and in the instructions below.
Scenario 1: Add Covid Supplement to an Employee with no Salary Change
If your employee will still be paid their same salary and you only need to add the notation of the Wage Supplement, do the following:
- Go to People
- Click on Edit Employee
- Go to the Job & Salary tab
- Tick the COVID-19 Wage Supplement
- Insert the projected GROSS amount
- Click Update on the bottom right
- Select the effective date of the agreement, and save
When you go to Run Payroll, you may edit the wage supplement amount, depending on the Gross amount received within the period. This supplement does not add the total earnings or take-home pay, but only denotes how much gross supplement has been received for said employee.
Scenario 2: Paying Employees Hourly and Covering the Wage Supplement
On the other hand, you may be paying employees on hourly basis, depending on how much they work. If so, do the following:
- Go to People
- Click on Edit Employee
- Go to the Job & Salary tab
- Tick the Variable Hours option (now available even for Full-Time employees)
- Tick the COVID-19 Wage Supplement and Covid Top-Up allowances
- We recommend inserting 0 in these fields, to input them during each payroll
- Click Update on the bottom right
- Select the effective date of the agreement, and save
Now, whenever you go to Run Payroll, insert the base hours and gross wage supplement. If the basic pay does not cover the wage supplement, simply add the difference to Covid Top-Up. (See example in the video above).
Note that the amounts earned in Covid Top-Up are included in the SSC Calculation. Moreover, since employees are not entitled to statutory entitlements for unpaid hours, as noted in the DIER FAQ (as of 20th April 2020). Thus, ticking Variable Hours lets Buddy calculate the Bonuses and Leave Entitlements on the Basic Hours inserted, as well as calculates SSC based on the period's earnings, rather than the normal weekly wage.
Employer SSC During COVID Supplement
When employees are earning COVID-19 Wage Supplement, make sure to mark all weeks as worked as the employer SSC needs to be paid on every week, regardless on the employee's schedule.
What about SSC in the FS5?
When you add a COVID-19 Wage Supplement in payroll, 10% of it will be deducted in the FS5's automatically.
Supplement for Employees on Class 2 SSC (e.g. Directors)
If some of your employees are liable to pay Class 2 SSC, please read the following article: COVID-19 Wage Supplement Implications for Class 2 SSC Employees