Order to change salary sample drafting and form

The employer can issue an order to change the salaries of employees. And if we are not talking about increasing such salaries, such a document may become the subject of inspection by supervisory authorities. An employee can file a complaint with the labor inspectorate, the prosecutor's office, or file a claim for recovery of wages. Therefore, the issue of issuing an order to change employee salaries is being discussed with the personnel service. Before signing the order, the employer must check the legitimacy (legality) of such a procedure.

Order to change employee salaries

How does an order to change employee salaries affect employee rights?

Wages consist of more than just salary. These include various incentive payments: bonuses, regional coefficient, bonus, etc. If payments in accordance with the terms of the employment contract and (or) the Remuneration Regulations are not mandatory, the employer should not issue an order. He simply rewards the employee or not. But changing the salary unilaterally means changing the terms of the employment contract. And such a procedure is permissible only with the consent of the employee.

Without the consent of the employee, the employer has the right to make decisions in accordance with Art. 74 of the Labor Code. But it is the employer who must prove the existence of grounds.

An order to change employee salaries can also be issued during wage indexation. When registering a transfer to another job, issuing a separate salary document is not required. The salary establishes the order for transfer to another job.

When changing salaries, the employee responsible for drawing up documents must not forget about the minimum wage, as well as allowances established by law. For example, it is impossible to reduce the regional coefficient or not pay it.

Legal grounds for changing the salary

A change in salary according to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation can only take place on legal grounds (as well as expulsion from an educational institution - only on the basis of an expulsion order described in the article at the link). This applies to both the procedure for increasing an employee's salary and demotion, although the latter case involves much more litigation, for obvious reasons.

In any case, changing the employee’s salary is possible only with mutual consent of the parties. Also, the employer, according to Article 74 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, is obliged to notify about an increase or decrease in salary at least two months in advance.

There are two exceptions to this rule. The first is specified in Article 306 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation , when the employer is an individual. Here the period is 2 calendar weeks. The second exception is indicated in Article 344 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation , and this is a religious organization, for which the minimum notice period for salary changes is one calendar week.

Among the legal grounds for changing employee salaries, it is especially worth noting:

changes in staff numbers;
use of new production technologies;
violation by an employee of labor legislation or the company’s charter.

Increase

An increase in wages is undoubtedly good news for any employee and one of the main incentive measures. However, this increase must be earned. An employer does not have the right to increase an employee’s salary without compelling reasons.

The list of reasons for increasing salary includes:

long-term and high-quality performance by the employee of official duties;
development and implementation of new technology into production;
taking courses and gaining the skills and knowledge necessary for promotion.

Demotion

A reduction in wages can occur either through the fault of the employee or as a result of problems of the company. Mutual consent is required only in the second case.

Reasons for a legal reduction in salary due to the fault of an employee:

appearing at the workplace under the influence of alcohol or drugs;
intentional (or negligent) damage to the organization’s property;
absenteeism without good reason;
other violations of the labor legislation of the Russian Federation or the company’s charter.

Reasons for legal salary reduction at the initiative of the employer:

changes in organizational and technological working conditions;
transfer of an employee to another position due to insufficient qualifications for the current one;
transfer of an employee to another position due to injury or illness.

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Contents of the order to change employee salaries

The legislator did not approve the order form. This means that each employer develops it himself.

The document contains the employer's company name, date and place of production. Next, the name is “order” and number (according to the employer’s accounting documents). The narrative must contain a rationale. In connection with this, an order was issued to change the salaries of employees. Financial crisis or, conversely, obtaining above-plan profit. Organizational and staffing measures or annual indexation, etc.

If an employer issues an order to change employee salaries in relation to several employees, it is advisable to devote a separate paragraph to each. In which to state that from a certain date (we indicate the date) the salary of the employee (position, surname, first name and patronymic) will be so much (in numbers and in words).

The employer appoints persons who monitor the execution of the order. Be sure to notify your accountant for proper payroll calculations. And personnel employees (if any) for familiarization with persons in respect of whom an order was issued to change employee salaries.

How is change recorded?

If an employee’s salary is changed, this parameter must be recorded in several documents at once:

An order to change the salary is the main administrative document that determines which employee needs to change the salary, its new value, and from what date this innovation will take effect. Typically, the order provides instructions for making changes to other documents;
The staffing table is a document that records the number of positions in the company and their corresponding salaries. If a salary change is made for any employee, the salary change must also be reflected in the staffing table. This can be formalized by an order to make changes, or by the introduction of a new staffing table (with a significant number of corrections);
Employment contract with an employee - labor law establishes that the amount of an employee’s salary must be directly stated in the employment agreement with him. If the salary is changed, an additional agreement must be drawn up. With the help of this document, the old clause of the contract will be changed to a new one.

Annual salary increase at the enterprise for all employees

If pay for work is changed for all subordinates, it increases by the same percentage, then this is possible, most often due to indexing. These terms and limits are not established by law, but usually wages thus change once a year.

The company chooses the date of salary changes at its discretion. This can be either the beginning or the end of the working year.

If all subordinates’ pay increases annually not due to indexation, and there are specific regulations in internal documents, then certain changes should be recorded in important papers.

They may be Regulations on payments for work , or on bonuses, etc. Adjustments are made taking into account the way in which these documents were adopted. It must be remembered that any changes must be introduced to subordinates against signature.

If an enterprise plans to index, then all it needs is a document confirming its implementation. If the salary increases for other reasons, then the need for orders will depend on the document flow adopted in the organization. As a rule, an additional agreement and presented to the employee for signature.

Download a sample additional agreement on salary increase here for free.

If there are a lot of workers in an organization, then it becomes expensive to draw up separate orders. But, if you enter all the data into one document, then workers can find out each other’s salaries, and this is not advisable.

Ways to increase your salary

The component of wages is prescribed in Article 129 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. According to the law, you can increase your salary if you increase the tariff rate, official salary , as well as the basic and basic salary rate.

In addition, it may become necessary to increase or establish compensation payments (for work in difficult conditions, in contaminated areas, etc.).

The manager can increase the amount of incentive payments that were established earlier (bonus portion, incentive allowances, etc.).

The first option for increasing wages is the most labor-intensive. But even in this case, there are options that are influenced by the fact whether the salaries of all workers will increase, or only some (one department or a pair of employees).

Salary increase due to increase in minimum wage

According to current legislation, the monthly payment to a subordinate who has worked efficiently for this period cannot be less than the minimum established by law.

If workers' wages are higher than the minimum, then the management of the enterprise may not make adjustments in this regard. The manager can do this at his own discretion at a time convenient for him.

You need to know that employee salaries may be lower than the minimum wage if the worker works part-time . If an employee works part-time, then his working day cannot last longer than four hours. Thus, the salary of this employee will be below the minimum wage.

If an employee’s salary is determined by the minimum wage, then it must be increased if the minimum wage has increased.

The wages of workers are fixed in the staff schedule , so it also needs to be adjusted. The staff schedule is adjusted taking into account the orders of the boss. The order is issued in free form.

Read our article about what staffing is.

In this case, the employee is not provided with notice of salary changes. It is necessary if the salary, on the contrary, is reduced.

Once adjustments to the state schedule have been made, the next step is to issue an additional agreement to the regular contract. It must indicate the employee’s new salary and the date from which the adjustments will take effect. This document is signed by the head of the enterprise and the employee.

How to apply for a salary increase

The most common option is to increase cash income. As a rule, it is associated with special merits, high productivity, and the need for additional motivation of the employee. Let's consider options for promotion.

For all employees

This development of events is associated with the adjustment of the salaries of all employees by the same percentage. This is possible during indexing. Article 134 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation obliges the employer to increase the amount of income due to rising inflation.

The employer determines the indexation algorithm in a collective agreement or local administrative act. Labor legislation does not establish the frequency and size of such changes, so the organization determines their frequency and size independently. As a rule, rates (salaries) increase by a set factor.

The manager's action algorithm when indexing is necessary for all employees is as follows:

Establish the procedure in the collective agreement (if there is no agreement, approve it in the wage regulations).
Issue an order to index wages with reference to the document in accordance with which it is carried out.
Make appropriate changes to the staffing table.
Conclude with employees additional agreements to employment contracts on changing payment terms (a sample is given at the end of the article).

Sample order to change salary

For individual employees

An individual increase in an employee’s income most often occurs on the recommendation of the immediate superior.

The immediate supervisor issues a submission to the employer justifying the need for a salary increase and asking them to consider this possibility.
The employer endorses and approves the submission.
The employer issues an order adjusting the staffing table.
The employer issues personal orders for employees (or one document relating to all those who have had changes).
The employer draws up and signs an additional agreement to the employment contract with the employee.

The last two documents must agree on their effective dates.

How to apply for a rate increase?

Most often, companies have to change the monthly tariff rate or employee salary. The most common change option is a promotion. Usually it occurs when employees have high labor productivity, their special services to the company, for the purpose of additional motivation, as well as due to some other general reasons. Most often, the rate increases for several employees at once. Its size should be the same for employees occupying the same position.

Salary may be increased for various reasons. For example:

the employee often exceeds the plan and shows good work results;

the salary may be increased due to the fact that the worker has improved his qualifications;

the employee has successfully passed the certification;

the employee has extensive work experience in the company;

in case the professional responsibilities of an employee change

The employee’s immediate supervisor draws up a memo requesting an increase in the specified person’s salary. The document substantiates the reason and gives a description of the employee. The memo is submitted to the director of the organization for signature. After its consideration, if a positive decision is made, by order of the employer, the HR department employee prepares an order to change the salary and an order to make changes to the staffing table.

Changes in the essential terms of the employment contract should be recorded in an additional agreement to the contract. This document is signed by both the employee and the employer.