Notes for both Payroll and Retiree Data:
Why you have to select 'payroll' or 'retiree' under the Branch/ Major Category search box:
We chose to have payroll and retiree data appear on the same page so that site visitors can carry out searches on both data together. We also know that some visitors to the site may want to search only payroll data or only retiree data. Putting ‘payroll’ and ‘retiree’ selections under Branch/ Major Category allows visitors to do both.
Where we got our data from:
Retiree information was compiled from data supplied by the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System. Payroll information was compiled from data supplied by the Kansas Department of Administration’s Division of Personnel Services.
Notes for Payroll Data:
Why we chose our own categories for Agency classification:
Agency name is a required column for this site and we do not have information on this for every government entity. Instead of leaving this column blank, we applied our own agency classification to payroll data to make searching for payroll data easier.
What is included in an employee's Wages:
Wages is the employee's base pay. It includes all types of earnings including bonuses and shift differential. Items not included are overtime pay, fringe benefit income, taxable group life, KPERS, deferred comp, TSA and VTSA, Dependent Care and Health Care, before-tax health insurance (medical, dental, drug, and vision), before-tax parking, 1042 treaty exempt income, federal foster grandparent pay, and federal employee Thrift Savings Plan. Any overtime that an employee has earned is listed in the Overtime Pay column.
How a duplication of data can occur:
Wages and Overtime Pay columns are the total dollar amounts earned per year per employee and not divided if an employee has multiple Employee Records. A duplication of data may occur if an employee has multiple Employee Records. An employee will have multiple employee records if he or she has been employed in multiple government positions. There will be a record for each position, and each record will contain the total amounts that an employee earned in that year. So the amount listed on any given record will be the amount that the employee earned in that pay year regardless of whether the employee earned that amount while being employed in the position listed in that record or in a position listed in a different record. This should be taken into consideration when analyzing payroll data.
Why benefit costs are only an estimate:
Privacy laws prohibit the disclosure of whether an employee receives health care benefits, so the only way to reflect health care expense is to assume that each employee is covered. Since we also cannot ascertain whether an employee has single or family coverage, health care benefits are calculated as a percentage of payroll as determined by dividing total health care costs by total payroll costs. Similar calculations are used to allocate other benefit costs to each employee. Benefit calculations for calendar year payroll use expense information from the fiscal year ended within that calendar year; for example, 2008 payroll data includes benefit calculations from fiscal year 2008 expenditures. The benefit rates we used in our calculations are:
|
|
2006
|
2007
|
2008
|
|
Health Care
|
11.36%
|
11.37%
|
10.95%
|
|
Retirement
|
6.53%
|
6.77%
|
7.08%
|
|
FICA
|
6.70%
|
6.72%
|
6.75%
|
|
Workers' Comp
|
1.09%
|
1.13%
|
1.15%
|
|
Sick & Annual Leave
|
0.50%
|
0.55%
|
0.50%
|
|
Unemployment
|
0.02%
|
0.13%
|
0.09%
|
|
Total:
|
23.20%
|
26.68%
|
26.52%
|
Notes for Retiree Data:
The reason we put the retirement plan type under Department/ Agency:
We do not have a column with retirement plan type as a heading. We also do not have department or agency names listed in the retiree data we received from the state. So we put the retirement plan information in the Department/ Agency column.
What the retirement plan acronyms stand for:
-Judge: Kansas Retirement System for Judges. Members include all justices of the Kansas Supreme Court and all judges of the Kansas Court of Appeals and District Courts of the State of Kansas, including District Magistrate judges.
-KP&F: Kansas Police and Firemen's Retirement System. Members include Kansas Highway Patrol, Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Board of Regents Institutions, and any affiliated county, city or other political subdivision of the state that employs police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians or university police.
-KPERS: Kansas Public Employee Retirement System. Members are qualified state employees not covered by Judge and KP&F.
Why we put Payee ID numbers instead of the recipient’s first and last names:
Privacy laws prohibit the release of retiree and beneficiary names. In the data we received from the state, they identified each recipient by their Payee ID, so we placed this information under beneficiary name.
Why the recipient type is listed under position:
The state of Kansas will not release the position held by retirees. To provide the public with as much information as possible, we chose to put whether the recipient is a retiree or beneficiary in the Position column.
An explanation of lump sum payments and the reason we listed them under overtime pay:
Kansas government employees can elect to take a onetime lump sum upon retiring. This reduces the amount of the retiree's or beneficiary’s monthly payments. We listed lump sum payments under overtime pay because it was an available column.
Why there are no benefit costs listed for retirees:
The state of Kansas will not release retiree benefits costs. Since this column is necessary for payroll data and payroll and retiree data share the same page, we have to display the benefit cost column.