An extra month of salary paid once a year, common across parts of the Middle East, Asia, Europe and Latin America. In some countries it is a legal requirement and in others a customary benefit, so global employers need to know which applies where.
A US workplace retirement savings plan, named after a section of the US tax code, that lets employees contribute from pre tax pay. Many employers match a portion of contributions, which is effectively extra compensation for those who opt in.
The fixed amount a person is paid for their role before any bonus, commission or benefits. It anchors most other pay maths, from pension contributions to overtime rates and severance formulas.
Managing the perks and protections a company offers its people, such as health cover, insurance, pensions and allowances. The recurring work is enrolment, eligibility changes and renewals, which all depend on accurate employment data.
In HarmoniHRM: Employee Management handles benefits administration and enrolment, with eligibility updating automatically when someone’s employment status changes.
Variable pay earned as a percentage of sales or deals closed, standard in sales roles. The details, such as caps, floors, accelerators and clawbacks, shape behaviour as much as the headline rate does.
Everything someone receives in exchange for their work: salary, bonuses, equity and benefits taken together. Serious offer comparisons look at total compensation, not just the base salary line.
Pay in the form of company shares or share options rather than cash, common at startups and listed companies alike. It aligns people with the company’s success, but it is harder to value, tax and explain than salary, so clear communication matters.
The complete closing payment when someone leaves, often called a full and final settlement: pro rata salary to the last day, payout for unused leave, deductions for anything owed, and any severance or end of service amounts due. It matters twice, once legally and once because it is the company’s last word to a leaver.
In HarmoniHRM: When a separation is recorded, Employee Management calculates the final settlement with a full trace: pro rata pay, leave payout and recoveries.
The difference between average pay for men and women across an organisation, expressed as a percentage. It is not the same as unequal pay: a company can pay men and women identically for the same job and still have a gap because of who holds the senior roles.
What someone earns before tax and other deductions are taken out. Salaries, offers and pay rises are almost always discussed in gross terms, which is why the number on the contract never matches the number in the bank.
What actually lands in someone’s bank account after tax and other deductions come out of gross pay. It is often called take home pay, and it is the number employees care about most.
The total a salesperson earns if they hit exactly 100 percent of their target: base salary plus expected commission. Sales offers are usually quoted this way, so candidates should always ask what share of the team actually hits target.
The annual window, standard in US benefits administration, when employees can join, change or drop benefit plans such as health cover for the year ahead. Outside the window, changes usually require a qualifying life event such as marriage or a new child, which is why the deadline genuinely matters.
Paying people fairly for comparable work regardless of gender, ethnicity or other characteristics. It goes beyond legal minimums: companies audit their own pay data to find and close gaps they cannot justify.
In HarmoniHRM: Payroll monitors gender pay gaps live and raises equity alerts when equivalent roles show pay disparities.
Paying someone for their notice period instead of having them work it, so employment ends immediately. Whether an employer can do this usually depends on the contract, and in the UK the payment is taxed as normal earnings, making it a clean exit mechanism rather than a tax free goodbye.
The recurring window a pay run covers, most commonly monthly in the UK and GCC, and weekly or fortnightly in much of the US. Everything in payroll, from overtime to pro rata maths, is anchored to it.
The end to end process of calculating what each person is owed and paying it correctly, on time, with the right taxes withheld and the right filings made. It is one of the few HR processes where a small error is immediately visible to everyone it touches.
In HarmoniHRM: Payroll runs multi jurisdiction payroll for the UK and GCC on the same data as Employee Management, with validation before every run and dual control approval.
The repeating rhythm payroll runs on: a cutoff for changes, processing and checking, approval, payday and the filings that follow. The window it covers is the pay period; the cycle is everything that must happen, in the right order, to close that window correctly every single time.
In HarmoniHRM: Payroll validates every run before it is processed and requires dual control approval, so each cycle closes with two sign offs and a full audit trail.
The document that shows what a person was paid in a period, what was deducted and why. In many countries employers are legally required to issue one for every pay run, and confusing payslips generate a steady stream of HR questions.
In HarmoniHRM: Payroll adds a plain language explanation to every payslip line item that changed since the last cycle.
Latin for “in proportion”. A pro rata salary or entitlement is scaled to match part time hours or a partial period, so someone working 60 percent of full time hours receives 60 percent of the full time figure.
A retirement savings scheme, common across South Asia, the Middle East and parts of Africa, funded by monthly contributions from employee and employer and paid out as a lump sum at retirement or on leaving. Where it is statutory, calculating, deducting and depositing contributions correctly is a core payroll duty.
The pay range a company sets for a role or level, with a minimum, midpoint and maximum. Bands keep individual pay decisions consistent and make progression explainable, instead of every offer being a one off negotiation.
Comparing what you pay for a role against what the market pays for comparable ones, using salary surveys and published data. It keeps offers competitive and pay reviews grounded in evidence, and it is the honest way to answer “are we paying enough”, which otherwise gets answered by resignations.
A payment made to an employee whose role is ended by the employer, on top of notice and final salary. Entitlements vary widely: some countries mandate a formula based on service, others leave it to contract or negotiation.
Extra pay for working less sociable hours, such as nights or weekends, set as a percentage uplift or a fixed premium on top of the base rate. In some countries a night premium is required by law; elsewhere it is simply what it costs to staff a 24 hour operation fairly.
Amounts an employer is legally required to withhold from pay, such as income tax and social insurance contributions. Getting them right is not optional: the employer usually carries the liability for mistakes, not the employee.
The full picture of what an employee gets from a company: pay, benefits, recognition, development and flexibility, considered as one package. It is a useful lens because two identical salaries can represent very different deals.
The part of pay that depends on results, such as bonuses, commission or profit share. It links cost to performance, but poorly designed schemes reliably reward the wrong behaviour, so the design details matter.
A court or government ordered deduction from someone’s wages to repay a debt, such as unpaid taxes or child support. Employers are legally required to process garnishments accurately through payroll, and mistakes carry penalties.
A retirement savings scheme arranged through the employer, usually funded by contributions from both sides. Rules on minimum contributions and who must be enrolled vary sharply by country.
In HarmoniHRM: Payroll calculates pension auto enrolment contributions as part of UK payroll runs.
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