Payroll in United States of America

Payroll Process in the United States

Before you jump into the core payroll process, you will need to tackle a pre-payroll phase. This is composed of several different stages, and it can become complex and time-consuming. The most effective way to manage pre-payroll is by joining forces with an expert like Skuad, who can support you throughout the entirety of your payroll in the United States.

Pre-payroll Phase

This phase includes setting up your organization, collecting and validating your payroll input, and complying with local payroll requirements.

Setting up the Organization

In order to create a standardized, efficient, and compliant way to approach payroll in the United States, you’ll need to define and communicate a series of corporate policies. These include:

Business Profile

You need to make sure that you register your business in the United States.

Work Location

The United States is formed of 50 states, each with its own rules and regulations around labor and employment. Be sure to establish specific policies according to the area(s) where your company will be operating.

Leave Policy

Although federal laws might now mandate businesses to guarantee any specific type of leave, as an employer you should define leave policies for your workforce. These include sick leave, vacation leave, and parental leave.

Attendance Policy

Tracking your employees’ attendance at work is essential when it comes to calculating their monthly salaries. Make sure that your organization can monitor regular attendance, special permits, and leave.

Statutory Components

Operating within the federal and state payroll laws is vital in order to run a legal and compliant business in the United States.

Salary Components

It’s important to identify all the aspects that contribute to making up your employees’ salaries, including additions and deductions.

Pay Schedule

While US workers are generally paid once per month, it’s up to your organization to establish when, exactly, salaries are paid out every month.

Employee information

Some information about your employees is mandatory in order to calculate their salary and manage other aspects of payroll in the United States.

Payroll Calculation Phase

The information that you have gathered during the pre-payroll phase is now transferred to your main payroll system. This helps your company calculate exactly how much money every employee will receive every month.

Post-payroll Phase

Salary Payments

The core of your post-payroll process is represented by paying out your employees’ salaries. Often, this is also the biggest expense that companies incur every month.

Payroll Accounting

To maintain your company’s accounts in order, it’s paramount that you record your employees’ salaries on a regular basis.

Payroll Reporting and Compliance

Another crucial aspect is liaising with external agencies to submit tax returns, send invoices, and communicate other information about payroll.

If this sounds quite overwhelming, speak with us — we are here to simplify and streamline your payroll in the United States.

Payroll Processing in the United States

Considering that every US state follows its own rules and regulations on payroll, it can be very difficult to ensure that your company is fully compliant all the time, and that it always pays the right amount to the right person, at the right time.

Payroll Processing Company in the United States

You don’t need to navigate this complicated system on your own. The best and most cost-effective choice for your business is to work with a payroll processing company in the United States – someone like Skuad. Let us handle your payroll, while you get on with growing your business.

Payroll Management in the United States

Keeping all the financial records of your employees and observing both the federal and state payroll and labor laws are the two most crucial aspects of managing payroll in the United States.

Payroll Compliance in the United States

Statutory compliance in connection with payroll includes elements such as taxes, employee salary, employee benefits, and social security.

Payroll Components in the United States

In the United States, payroll includes standard pay with both additions and deductions. Below you will find a more comprehensive list of the main payroll components that influence payroll.

Compensation

Currently, the minimum wage on a federal level in the United States is $7.25, as established by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). However, states also have their own rules in terms of minimum wage, and employers must follow both federal and state laws.

Working hours

In the United States, typical working hours in an office are eight per day, with approximately one hour of lunch break, over five working days. Other sectors may observe different working days and hours.

Overtime laws

When an employee has worked more than 40 hours in a week, they must receive overtime compensation. The standard rate is at least 1.5x the base hourly pay.

Social security

In the United States, employers withhold the Social Security tax from their employees’ salaries and send it to the government.

Sick leave

Employees in the United States are not eligible for any mandated paid sick leave on a federal level. Again, this can change quite significantly on a state-by-state basis, with some states requiring companies to offer paid sick leave to their employees.

Parental leave

There currently is no standard federal provision for maternity and paternity leave in the United States. However, the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides legal parents with a maximum of 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year, following the birth or adoption of a child. Remember to check with the specific state in which you are operating, as some areas do require employers to offer some form of paid leave to new parents.

Public holidays

Below is a list of the main federal holidays in the United States:

• New Year's Day: January 1
• Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.: January 17
• Washington's Birthday (Presidents' Day): February 21
• Memorial Day: Last Monday in May
• Juneteenth National Independence Day: June 19
• Independence Day: July 4
• Labor Day: First Monday in September
• Columbus Day: October 10
• Veterans Day: November 11
• Thanksgiving Day: Last Thursday in November
• Christmas Day: December 25

Payroll taxes

Employers in the United States are required to submit taxes and report them to the relevant authorities within the specified deadlines.

Termination of Employment

On a federal level, employers wishing to terminate an employee in the United States are not required by law to provide a fair warning. However, individual states do have their own provisions on the matter, so be sure to check with your specific state.

Paid Annual Leave

According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), companies in the United States are not mandated to pay their employees for time off work, including vacations. Nonetheless, each individual company should still define and communicate its own decisions on this subject, and ensure that it complies with them.

Understanding and remembering these main payroll components in the United States might feel like an intimidating task. With such few provisions on a federal level, and so many state-dependent peculiarities, the overall landscape is, indeed, very complicated. Don’t worry, though — a knowledgeable partner like Skuad can help you stay abreast of all this, and more.

Payroll Outsourcing: The Best Way to Build a Solid, Talented Workforce in the United States

There are a few different ways in which you can manage payroll in the United States. These include, for example, paying your employees through a US subsidiary (internal payroll) — a costly option which requires you to hire a full team of HR professionals.

Alternatively, you can choose remote payroll, a method in which your parent company in the United States manages payroll for you. While cheaper than internal payroll, this method means always staying up-to-date with the complicated, changing laws on a federal and state level.

A third option is hiring a local payroll processing company, which can become very time-consuming as you need to search the local market for a trusted, experienced, and efficient payroll processing provider.

The best option to manage payroll in the United States is outsourcing payroll to a global payroll provider, like Skuad. With a reputable, knowledgeable, and ultra-efficient partner like us by your side, you have the peace of mind that every single aspect of your payroll is looked after with the greatest care, and you can go back to growing your business in confidence.

Would you like to know more about how we achieve this for you? Check out our FREE demo now.