Current through August 30, 2024
(a) An
employer who makes wage payments that cause artificial peaks and declines in
quarterly payroll, or whose quarterly payroll is affected by a labor dispute,
may request that the director adjust the quarterly payroll in computing the
quarterly decline quotient. Requests must be made on forms provided by the
director.
(b) The director may
adjust an employer's quarterly payroll if
(1)
the employer paid wages in the form of an annual bonus;
(2) the employer paid wages in the form of a
lump-sum payment for service performed over a period of more than three months;
(3) the employer made seven
bi-weekly wage payments per employee in a calendar quarter;
(4) the employer reported wages for services
excluded from the definition of "employment" under
AS
23.20.526 and for which an election has not
been approved under
AS
23.20.325;
(5) the employer's quarterly payroll was
affected by unemployment that was not compensable under the labor dispute
provisions of
AS
23.20.383; or
(6) the employer had a change in accounting
practices.
(7) the employer had a
fluctuation in payroll as a result of COVID-19 as substantiated by government
declarations of a state of emergency and corresponding mandates directly
related to COVID-19.
(c)
The employer's payroll may be adjusted as follows:
(1) at the employer's option, annual bonuses
and lump-sum wage payments may be deleted from the payroll or apportioned
equally among the quarters in the calendar year in which the artificial peaks
or declines occur;
(2) at the
employer's option, the seventh bi-weekly wage payment may be deleted from the
payroll or apportioned equally among the quarters in the calendar year in which
the payment was made;
(3) excluded
employment reported by the employer and for which an election has not been
approved under
AS
23.20.325 may be deleted from the payroll in
the calendar quarter in which the payment was reported;
(4) a decline in payroll that is caused by
unemployment that is not compensable under the labor dispute provisions of
AS
23.20.383 may be adjusted by adding to the
payroll the wages that would have been earned during the quarter by the
employees involved in the dispute;
(5) a decline in payroll caused by a change
in an employer's accounting practices may be adjusted by adding wages that
would have been reported in the quarter if an accounting change affecting the
employer's payroll had not occurred; a change in wages in one quarter must have
an offsetting amount as a correction to another quarter.
(6) a fluctuation in payroll as a direct
result of COVID-19 may be adjusted for artificial peaks or declines, but only
during a timeframe directly impacted by COVID-19 as established by government
declarations.
(d) If an
employer elects to exercise an option under (c)(1) or (2) of this section, the
employer may not revoke that option without the approval of the director.
(e) In this section, "annual
bonus" means something that is given or paid once a year, and that is over or
in addition to what is due or expected, unlike a commission or an incentive
payment.
As amendment to add
8 AAC 85.060(c) took affect on April 6,
2020, as an emergency regulation, and was first published in Register 234 (July
2020). In reviewing the "permanent" regulation in accordance with AS 44.62.60
and
AS
44.62.125(b), the regulation
attorney made technical changes to AAC 85.60(c). The technical changes appeared
in the "permanent" regulations as published in Register 235(October 2020).The
history note for 8 AAC 85.60(c) does not reflect the changes made by the
regulations attorney.
Authority:AS
23.20.045
AS
23.20.285
AS
23.20.325
