Payroll and Pay Days Policy

Purpose

This policy explains how and when NEO pays its employees: the pay days, what each pay statement shows, what can be taken off your pay, how mistakes are fixed, and what happens to your pay and tax forms when your employment ends. It follows Ontario's Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) and the federal payroll rules, and in a few places it gives more.

Who it applies to

• Employees of NEO, full-time or part-time, including licensed paralegals NEO employs.
• Not independent contractors. Licensed paralegals who work with NEO on a fee share are self-employed and are paid under their agreements, as explained under "Contractors" below.
• Students on school-approved placements are covered by our Students and Placements Policy. A student NEO hires and pays as an employee is covered by this policy.

Your employment agreement may give you more than this policy. Where it does, the agreement applies. Nothing in this policy gives you less than the ESA requires.

Pay days: the 1st and the 16th

NEO pays semi-monthly, 24 times a year, by direct deposit. Each pay day pays for a half-month that has already ended:

For example, work done from March 1 to 15 is paid on April 1, and work done from March 16 to 31 is paid on April 16.

• Weekends and holidays. If the 1st or the 16th falls on a Saturday, a Sunday, a public holiday or another day banks are closed, you are paid on the business day before. January 1 and July 1 are always holidays, so those pays arrive on the last business day of December and of June.
• Why there is a gap. Paying for a period that has already ended lets us include all your hours, overtime and timesheet corrections, so everything you earn in a pay period is paid by that period's pay day, as the ESA requires.
• Your first pay comes on the first pay day after your first pay period ends. If you start on November 3, your first pay, for November 3 to 15, is on December 1.
• Your offer letter or employment agreement states your pay rate, your pay period and your pay day.
• Wages are paid from NEO's own business account, never from its trust account. See our Trust Accounting and Client Money Policy.

Direct deposit and banking changes

1. Your pay goes to an account you choose, at the financial institution you choose. It must be in your name, and no one else may have access to it unless you authorize them. This is what the ESA requires.
2. When you start, give us your banking details and your completed federal and Ontario TD1 forms, through your staff profile or as the principal directs, so the right amount of tax is deducted. Give us new TD1 forms if your situation changes.
3. To change your account, update it in your staff profile or tell the principal in writing. To protect you from fraud, we confirm every banking change with you directly, by phone or in person, before it takes effect, and we never act on an emailed request alone. A change received and confirmed at least five business days before a pay day applies to that pay; otherwise it applies to the next one.
4. If a deposit is returned or doesn't arrive, tell the principal right away, and we will pay you another way the ESA allows as soon as possible.

Your pay statement

On or before every pay day you receive a written pay statement (paystub), by email or, if you prefer, on paper. You can also view, save and print your pay statements privately in the staff portal. The ESA allows a pay statement by email only if you have a way to print it, so tell us if you don't, and we will give you a paper copy. It shows:

• the pay period it covers;
• your wage rate, if you have one;
• your gross pay and how it was worked out (regular hours, overtime, public holiday pay and so on);
• the amount and purpose of each deduction;
• your net pay; and
• vacation pay, shown separately, if it is paid with each pay.

Deductions

NEO takes money off your pay only as section 13 of the ESA allows:

1. Deductions the law requires: federal and Ontario income tax (which includes the Ontario Health Premium), Canada Pension Plan contributions (including the second additional contribution, CPP2, on earnings above the first yearly ceiling) and Employment Insurance premiums. NEO also pays its own employer share of CPP and EI, and sends it all to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
2. Court orders, such as a garnishment or a support deduction order, within the limits the law sets. You will never be penalized because NEO receives one.
3. Deductions you authorize in writing, such as repaying an amount you have agreed to repay. The authorization must state the amount, or a formula for working it out.

NEO never deducts for mistakes in your work, cash shortages, or lost or damaged property, even with your consent. WSIB premiums are paid by NEO and are never taken from your pay, as the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 requires.

Hours, timesheets and deadlines

1. Record your hours on the punch clock in the staff portal every day you work, including work done away from the office. Work outside your scheduled hours, such as answering work messages, counts too. See our Disconnecting from Work Policy.
2. Check and confirm your timesheet for each pay period by the end of the second business day after the period ends. The principal reviews and approves timesheets before payroll is run.
3. If you forgot to punch in or out, or an entry is wrong, ask for a correction and give a short reason. Every correction, and who made it, is recorded.
4. A late timesheet never delays your pay. If yours isn't confirmed in time, we pay you from the punch-clock record and your schedule, and correct any difference on the next pay.
5. Time you record on client matters is for billing and the client's file. It doesn't replace the punch clock.

Overtime, public holidays and vacation pay

• Overtime is paid at least as the ESA requires: generally one and a half times your regular rate for each hour over 44 in a work week, unless the ESA exempts your role. Overtime should be approved in advance by the principal, but hours you actually work are always paid. Overtime is paid on the pay day for the period in which it is earned. Our Hours of Work, Overtime and Attendance Policy has the rules on hours.
• Banked time instead of overtime pay is possible only if you agree in writing, at one and a half hours off for each overtime hour, taken within the time the ESA allows. If it isn't taken in time, or your employment ends before you use it, it is paid as overtime pay.
• Public holiday pay, and premium pay for working on a public holiday, are paid on the pay day for the period in which they are earned.
• Vacation pay is at least 4% of your gross wages (not counting vacation pay itself), or 6% once you have five years of employment, or more if your agreement provides it. Because NEO pays by direct deposit, vacation pay is paid on or before the pay day for the period in which your vacation falls, unless you agree in writing to have it paid with each pay (shown separately on your pay statement) or at another agreed time. If your vacation pay isn't paid with each pay, you can ask in writing for a statement of your vacation time and pay, and we provide it within the time the ESA sets. Our Vacation, Holidays and Leaves Policy explains vacation time.

Mistakes and overpayments

• If you're underpaid, tell the principal. We pay the shortfall as soon as possible, and no later than the next pay day.
• If you're overpaid, we tell you, show you how the amount was worked out, and agree with you in writing how it will be repaid, for example over several pays. A repayment is deducted from your wages only with your written authorization stating the amount or a formula, or as the ESA otherwise allows.
• Tax and contribution errors (income tax, CPP or EI deducted wrongly) are corrected as the CRA's rules allow, and the correction appears on your pay statement.
• Please tell us about any error you notice, even one in your favour.

When your employment ends

1. Final pay. Everything you are owed is paid by the later of seven days after your employment ends and the day that would have been your next pay day, as the ESA requires. That includes your last days of work that our schedule would normally pay later, unpaid overtime and banked time, vacation pay, and any termination or severance pay (severance pay may instead be paid in instalments only if you agree or the Director of Employment Standards approves, as the ESA allows). For example, if your last day is the 20th, your pay for the 16th to the 20th comes on the next pay day, the 1st (or the business day before it), not on the 16th.
2. Final pay statement. It shows separately any termination, severance and vacation pay, and how each was worked out.
3. No holding back. NEO never withholds wages to secure the return of firm property or for any other reason the ESA doesn't allow.
4. Record of Employment (ROE). When your earnings are interrupted, for example when you leave NEO or start an unpaid leave, NEO issues an ROE to Service Canada within Service Canada's deadline. For an electronic ROE on a semi-monthly schedule, that is five calendar days after the end of the pay period in which the interruption happens. You can see your ROE in your My Service Canada Account.

Year-end tax slips

• NEO gives you your T4 slip for the year by the last day of February of the following year, and files it with the CRA, as the CRA requires.
• If we make slips available in the staff portal, you can view and print yours there. You get a paper copy if you ask for one, if you have left NEO or are on an extended leave when slips are issued, or if you can't reasonably get it from the portal. We email a slip only with your written or electronic consent.

Payroll records

NEO keeps your payroll records (hours, pay statements, deductions, vacation records, TD1 forms and tax slips) securely, mainly in the staff portal, for at least the longest period the law requires: three years under the ESA for most hours and pay information, five years for vacation records, and six years after the end of the tax year they relate to under the CRA's rules. Our Employee Privacy and Personnel Records Policy explains who can see them and how long they are kept.

Pay is private, and you may talk about yours

• Payroll information is confidential. Only the principal, and anyone the principal authorizes to run payroll, can see other people's pay. Anyone with that access keeps it confidential.
• You are free to discuss your own pay. NEO will never penalize you for asking about pay or sharing your own. The ESA specifically protects asking about another employee's rate of pay, and disclosing your own, to find out whether an employer is complying with equal pay for equal work.

Contractors

Independent-contractor paralegals are not on payroll, and NEO makes no tax, CPP or EI deductions for them and issues them no pay statements. They are paid under their written agreements. For licensed paralegals on NEO's fee share, that means a monthly Payment Statement and payment by the 15th of the following month, as our fee-share terms explain. See our Independent Contractor Paralegals Policy. Expenses are covered by our Expense Reimbursement Policy.

Review

This policy is reviewed at least once a year, and whenever employment standards or payroll rules change. The principal approves every change, and employees are told about changes before they take effect.

Questions

Ask the principal, or email info@neolegalservices.com, call 647-200-3526 or toll-free 888-519-2435, or write to us at Unit 236, 1099 Kingston Road, Pickering, Ontario L1V 1B5.