With the evolving work arrangements in our workplace today, companies can expect more flexibility when it comes to the working structure. As such, there is a growing market of freelancers and part-timers.
Hiring part-timers is becoming a common affair. Here is what you need to know when you have part-timers working for you within your organisation.
1. Who is a part-time worker?
Based on the definition provided by Ministry of Manpower Singapore. A part-time employee is one who is under a contract of service with an organisation to work less than 35 hours a week.
For any part-time employee, the contract of service must specify the following:
- Hourly basic rate of pay
- Hourly gross rate of pay (hourly basic rate plus allowances)
- Number of working hours per day or per week
- Number of working days per week or per month
2. Salary Payments – Monthly, Hourly & Daily
Part-timers are typically regarded as monthly-salaried employees, though it is up to the company’s discretion whether salary disbursement on a monthly, weekly or even daily basis. For a monthly-rated part-time employee, calculations of their hourly and daily rates of pay are as follows:
Hourly basic rate of pay: (12 x monthly basic rate of pay) / (52 x no. of hours worked in a week)
Daily basic rate of pay: (12 x monthly basic rate of pay) / (52 x no. of days a part-timer employee is required to work in a week)
3. Overtime Work
Overtime work is defined as work that exceeds a part-time employee’s normal daily working hours. Part-time workers are entitled to payment for overtime work. The overtime payment rate is dependent on whether the hours exceed the normal working hours of a similar full-time employee.
Here are the overtime rates to use depending on the hours of overtime work:
- If hours worked exceed part-time daily working hours but less than a full-time employee’s normal hours, the payment is calculated at the basic hourly rate of pay
- If hours worked exceed a full-time employee’s normal hours, the payment is calculated at basic hourly rate x 1.5 for the hours that exceed a full-time employee’s normal hour
4. Rest Days & Public Holidays
A part-time employee is entitled to 1 rest day per week if they are required to work for at least 5 days in a week.
However, should they work on a rest day, the payment depends on whether the work was done at the employer’s request or self-requested.
For a detailed breakdown on the payment rates for work done on rest day, please refer to the MOM guidelines here.
A part-time employee is also entitled to paid public holidays. The public holiday pay should be pro-rated based on the number of hours that a part-timer works.
However, a part-timer is allowed to encash the public holidays and add it to their hourly gross rate of pay. However, such an arrangement should be agreed upon between the part-time employee and employer. Furthermore, it should be clearly stated in the contract of service.
The formula for pro-rated public holiday pay and encashing public holiday can be found on the Ministry of Manpower Singapore website here.
If the part-timer is required to work on a public holiday, he or she should be paid the following:
- Basic rate of pay for 1 day’s work
- Amount entitled to for a public holiday
- One day’s travel allowance (if included in the contract)
5. Leave Entitlement
A part-time employee is entitled to paid annual leave and sick leave. Moreover, eligible parents can also qualify for maternity, paternity and childcare leave. If you are using a leave management system, understanding the statutory requirements allow you to make the correct configuration settings to ensure compliance.
Do note that these leave entitlements are applicable only after the part-time employee has completed a minimally three months of service.
A detailed breakdown of the leave requirements and payment calculation can be found on the MOM website here.
Salary payments and leave benefits for a part-timer differ vastly as opposed to that of a full-time employee. It is important to familiarize yourself with the necessary entitlements and calculations to avoid making any payroll mistakes.
F&B staffs
Being in the food and beverage (F&B) business is tough without a doubt – long hours, never-ending customers. Planning and updating your menus to follow the latest food craze. Coupled with the need to deal with suppliers while ensuring your F&B business stays profitable, it is no doubt a herculean task to keep your F&B business growing.
In addition to these hurdles, there is the question of labour cost control. High turnover rates are common within the F&B industry but that does not mean it has to be the same for your F&B business. Managing wages accurately can prevent unnecessary monetary losses and translate to more savings for your establishment in the long run. Moreover, paying your workers timely and accurately can in turn help to retain valuable workers.
F&B payroll management goes beyond timely and correct payment of wages. It includes proper time tracking, scheduling as well as training. The F&B industry plays a rather vital role in Singapore’s economy. It would not be surprising to find several software vendors in the market offering payroll software for restaurant businesses.
Instead of merely relying on these payroll software to do the work for you, here are some tips to manage your workers’ wages with ease and efficiency.
Accurate Time Tracking
In the F&B business, shift work is extremely common. To ensure that your workers are paid correctly for the number of hours worked, it is essential to record the accurate number of hours worked. However, when you have that many workers on hand, it is difficult to keep track of all their working hours. Using tools like time-tracking or scheduling apps. Additionally, these tools typically provide you with productivity reports which could help you with scheduling too.
Proper Scheduling
Proper Scheduling can help deliver the greatest value to you, your workers and your business. For instance, building your schedules with the busiest shifts first will let you put your best workers where you need them most. Also, identify where are your peak sales periods so that you can put more workers for those shifts. Likewise, plan ahead for holiday periods whereby high volumes of customers are expected, such as Valentines Day or Christmas Day. That way, you will not be understaffed when there are high inflow of customers and vice versa.
Understand your workers and their needs
Given the flexibility of the business, you are likely to have a small core team of full-time workers and a handful of part-timers. Understand that full-time workers will require more predictability in their schedules and therefore, it is essential to ensure a regular and consistent schedule pattern. On the other hand, part-timers are willing to be more flexible. Additionally, give your workers the flexibility to trade shifts. After all, some things are simply not within our control.
Accurate Payroll
The last thing that anybody wants is to be underpaid. With proper and accurate time-tracking, this will help when you are doing your payroll. Moreover, if you are still doing your payroll manually, this is where a payroll software can be a lifesaver. Not only does it save you those long hours, it can easily help you calculate the pay for hourly and salaried workers. This reduces the risk of miscalculation. Businesses with large number of employees to process payroll for, having an external payroll provider to manage your payroll may be extremely handy. This frees up time for your HR and payroll staff to focus on strategic initiatives to drive productivity and efficiency.
Good food will only get your so far. What makes your customers come back time and again is the customer service that you provide. And compensating your workers timely and accurately will keep them motivated to provide even better service.