Student Payroll Information
This section will detail how to appoint and maintain student positions, requesting pay and managing pay adjustments. It also includes information on requesting pay for Instructional Student Assistants (ISA). For more information about the complete process for hiring student employees please go to Employment's Student Employee Hire Process Steps(opens in new window). For more information regarding appointing and processing ISA students please review the Academic AAS/ASC/ASA (PDF) CHRS documentation. If you have questions regarding viewing access contact HR Security(opens in new window).
- Helpful Hints
Student Payroll Attendance Clerk
Each department/college that employs students on campus will assign a Student Payroll Attendance Clerk(s) to perform these student employment tasks. The Student Payroll Attendance Clerk(s) is required to attend the HRSC - CMS: Time and Labor - Student Payroll training and have the appropriate Security Authorizations turned in to our HRIS department for Time and Labor access. Additional information can be found at the PeopleSoft HR Security and Training(opens in new window) site.
Student Appointment Changes
Student appointments or changes for job codes 1870, 1871, 1874, 1875,or 1868(opens in new window) must be effective at the beginning of a pay period. Student pay periods match the Staff/Faculty pay periods on the current Chico State Employee Calendar(opens in new window). Student time can only be paid in tenths of an hour increments. Student will enter as it is worked and CHRS will round to tenths of an hour.
Pertinent Deadlines for Student Pay
You will find pertinent deadlines for student pay on the Payroll/HR Deadlines and Due Dates calendar (link coming soon). Our office suggests the use this Outlook calendar to ensure the deadlines reflected here are met.
Student Payroll Due
Is the day to enter your student time; typically the second workday after the pay period ends.
Manage Exceptions and Approve Time
Is the day to verify and approve the time entered; typically the fourth workday after the pay period ends. More information about this process can be found here(opens in new window).
Student Employee Time Entry
All hourly student employees (including ISAs) will enter their hours worked directly into CHRS using Employee Self Service. Time should be entered as it is worked throughout the pay period. Hourly Student employees will enter as “punch” time (enter in and out times). Additional information (PDF) is available for Student Employees.
Hourly/Intermittent Employee Pay Day
Hourly/intermittent payday is typically it is on the 15th of the month. If the 15th falls on a Saturday, pay will be released on the Friday before. If the 15th falls on a Sunday, pay will be released on the Monday after. Please refer to Chico State Employee Calendar(opens in new window) for the exact date.
Please refer to ourStudent Policies and Procedures(opens in new window)(opens in new window) document and the Career Center Chico State(opens in new window) website for more information regarding student employees.
The common student job codes(opens in new window) are as follows:
- 1870 - Student Assistant
- 1871 - Student Assistant - Work Study
- 1868 - Student - Non-Resident Alien (NRA) (International Student)
- 1874 - Summer Bridge Student
- 1875 - Summer Bridge Student - Work Study
- 1150 - Instructional Student Assistant
- 1151 - Instructional Student Assistant - Work Study
- Establishing Student Eligibility
There are certain criteria a student must meet in order to be employed as a student assistant. Our Student Policies and Procedures(opens in new window) document has helpful information. Please contact the Career Center Chico State Office for more detailed and specific information regarding Student Employment Eligibility.
Students are only eligible to work 20 hours per week for all of their combined on-campus jobs. Ultimately it is the students’ responsibility to monitor this limit since they may work for multiple department/colleges; however it is beneficial for each department/college to be aware of all positions held on campus for each of their active students.
It is the responsibility of the department/college to verify the student employment eligibility prior to submitting the paperwork to hire them. Student Information should be monitored regularly.
- Reviewing Student Information and Student Time
Monitor Student Positions
There are several ways to find information to help monitor student positions. Periodically the Student Payroll Attendance Clerk should monitor their student employees. Various CHRS and PeopleSoft pages and reports are available. Training (PDF) and Reporting Process Guides(opens in new window) are available for student payroll processing and monitoring. Descriptions and links to specific guides are included below.
Student, TA, GA ISA Report- More information coming soon!
To verify students’ eligibility. There are two ways to run this report, but running it periodically for “Ineligible Students Only” will give you a report of active student employees who are ineligible to work in a specific department for the date the report is run. We suggest that you run this report at least twice a semester, once at the beginning and once right after the final drop date to ensure that your students have not fallen below the approved Unit enrollment.
Student Employee Listing Report(opens in new window)
An Insight report that provides a department/college a snapshot of all the active student employees in a specific DeptID, Job Code or Status. This report can be exported to Excel can also be used when filling out various Payroll forms to ensure accuracy. In addition, it can be used to monitor Appointment End Dates for active student employees to ensure documents are prepared in advance for appointment extensions or terminations. It can also be used to monitor the Reports To for your student employees.
- Maintaining Reports To section – add ‘s’ as noted in red and update to
- View what student have been paid – update to
Departments/colleges have a couple of options to view what students have been paid. Here is the most common:
Maintaining Reports-To Information
CHRS maintains reporting relationships based on position. One Position # reports to another Position #. The reporting relationship for each employee needs to be maintained to allow for approval of time worked in CHRS. In addition, having the employee supervisors identified in the campus system of record enables Human Resources to provide required training to the appropriate individuals and offer resources and other trainings to those who need them. This functionality is also used each year to review and approve access to campus systems such as PeopleSoft applications administrative access, Insight Reporting, CRA and Data Warehouse.
Each area on campus appoints one or two people to maintain this “Reports-To” data for all employees. Typically, the Student Payroll Attendance Clerks maintain the data for student employees. A Business Processing Guide has been created to help our “Report-To” maintainers use this functionality in CHRS.
View what students have been paid
Departments/colleges have a couple of options to view what students have been paid. Here are the most common:
Reviewing Student Time(opens in new window)
This includes: Timesheet Summary and View total by week. These available views in CHRS allow departments/colleges to look at a snapshot of each student/job.
- Hiring New Student Employees
When hiring a student new to your department/college, whether brand new on campus or new to your department, there are certain Federal and State requirements regarding employment. For more information about the complete process for hiring student employees please go to Employment's Student Employee Hire Process Steps. Each new or returning employee will need to visit HRSC Counter in Kendall 220 for a determination on what paperwork will be required prior to their start date. This paperwork must be completed PRIOR TO the employee starting work and prior to the employee being entered in Oracle/PeopleSoft. Review I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification under Hire Process for requirements that pertain to student employees.
- Instructional Student Assistants (1150 or 1151)
Instructional Student Assistants are hired into Colleges through Temporary Academic Employment (TAE) module in CHRS. For more information regarding appointing and processing ISA students please review the Academic AAS/ASC/ASA (PDF) CHRS documentation. If you have questions regarding viewing access contact HR Security(opens in new window).
- Student Employment Authorization (SEA) Forms
All student employment requests are made on one of two Student Employment Authorization (SEA) forms found Box folder Student Payroll Forms(opens in new window). The Standard SEA form(opens in new window) is for Job Codes 1868, 1870, and 1871. The Bridge SEA form(opens in new window) is used during the summer pay periods for students that are not enrolled in summer session classes, Job Codes 1874, and 1875. Each form requires specific information regarding the Department, Attendance Clerk, Supervisor and the student and all fields must be completed. Some of the transactions available on these SEA forms are below:
- New Appointment
- Concurrent Appointment – additional appointment in same department
- Extend Appointment – if original appointment end date is approaching or past
- Rehire previously separated employee
- Pay Rate increase/decrease
- Termination - used for 3-day terminations or early separations. See Separating Students section for all others.
Upon completion of these forms, please follow the instructions in this process guide(opens in new window). It will explain how to obtain required signatures, demonstrate approval for the action, and submit the SEA via Adobe Sign.
Please note: All SEA forms reflecting student pay rates that meet or exceed Student Employee IV category minimum, must be approved by the Career Center and require an authorizing signature for the change. Please refer to the Student Employee Wage Rates web page and open wage rates for the current year which includes classifications for more specific information.
Standard SEA
Each appointment for Job Codes 1870, 1871, and 1868 needs to have a beginning and an end date. These dates should follow the State approved pay periods found on the annual current Chico State Employee Calendar and are initially established on the Student Employment Authorization (SEA) form used to hire the employee. Students may be hired in multiple positions within a department/college as well as across campus. Student pay rates are set by the Career Center and all rates submitted must match the Student Employee Classification Levels and Wage Rates.
Students may receive a pay rate change, be terminated, rehired or their appointment may be extended beyond the Appointment End Date from the original SEA form. The action check boxes at the top of the form are a guide to help direct you to determine which section must be filled out on the form.
NOTE: All areas pertinent to the transaction need to be filled in completely or the form will likely be rejected and returned to the department/college for correction.
Action Check boxes
Used to determine what type of transaction is requested.
Header Info
Required employee and department information and effective date of action.
Transaction detail
Based on the Action Check Box, fill out the appropriate detail section of the form, including CMS Position #, Job Code, Empl Rcd # if already established, pay rate and Appointment End Date.
Signature section
If one of the 4 action check boxes on the top left are checked the student will need to sign and must be included in the Adobe Sign Workflow for SEA submission.
NOTE: It is not the responsibility of the department/college to decide if a student should be an NRA (Job Code 1868). Instead, department/colleges should assume all student employees will be hired in Job Codes 1870, and 1871. When the student comes to HRSC to fill out the I-9 portion of their New Employee paperwork, HRSC Employment Services will make any necessary changes if their status is deemed to be different than reflected on the SEA.
Bridge SEA
Students that intend to work throughout the summer pay periods (June, July and August), but will not be enrolled in summer session classes, are required to be appointed to a Bridge Student Classification. This position differs from Job Codes 1870, and 1871 in that Retirement and Medicare deductions will be withheld from their pay. The Bridge Student Employment Authorization (Bridge SEA) is updated annually in May to include the current year’s effective dates and pay periods.
NOTE: NRA Students are exempt from the Bridge classification series.
Header Info
Student and department/college information, Student Employment office approval. Please note that if the student holds an active 1870, and 1871 position at a Student Employee IV Category pay rate, Student Employment will need to sign the Bridge SEA form.
Transaction detail
Mark the boxes for the type of transaction and effective date of the transaction. All Bridge Student Appointments end on the same date and will be automatically terminated by the Payroll Office. Select the box for whether the student has work study or not and fill in the appropriate CMS Position # to correspond with your DeptID and the Job Code.
Signature section
Students only sign if they are a brand new employee and this is their first appointment on campus.
- Separating Students
Department/college offices are responsible for separating any students who will not be working for them any longer. For 1870, 1871, and1868 job codes, please refer to the Student Separation Report(opens in new window) for specific instructions. These instructions will create a report that lists students whose Appointment End Date lies within the parameters of the report. The Student Payroll Attendance Clerk will run the report, export it to Excel, fill in the "Last Day Worked" as necessary for each student, convert the report to pdf, sign the report and submit to the Payroll Office. If a department intends to extend an appointment for one of the students listed, that line of detail should be deleted. Please do not overwrite any information that comes pre-loaded on the report.
All ISA Students will need to be separated upon Semester Breaks based on the length of their appointment. For 1150 & 1151 job codes, Payroll and HRIS will process mass terminations each semester to terminate job records.
- Reporting Time/ Requesting Pay
Reporting Time/Requesting Pay
All hourly student employees (including ISAs) will enter their hours worked directly into CHRS using Employee Self Service. Time should be entered as it is worked throughout the pay period. Time entry is due no later than the 2nd working day of the following pay period. For instance, hours for April 2025 are due to be entered no later than May 2nd. Hourly Student employees will enter as “punch” time (enter in and out times).Additional information (PDF) is available for Student Employees. Payroll strongly suggests that all student employees enter their own time; however, Student Payroll Attendance Clerks will have access as Timekeepers.
Reviewing Time
Instructions for Reviewing Student Tim(opens in new window)e(opens in new window) are available. This includes: Timesheet Summary and View total by week. These available views in CHRS allow departments/colleges to look at a snapshot of each student/job. Additional information for Student Payroll Attendance Clerks(opens in new window) is available.
Requesting Late Time
Grace period is 5 days after the close of a pay period. If your student employee misses the deadline and is beyond the grace period, intervention will be needed 1) by the Student Payroll Attendance Clerk (Timekeeper) to enter time, and then the student employee’s supervisor would need to approve, or 2) the student employee’s direct supervisor can enter/approve on the employee’s behalf. A timesheet(opens in new window) should be manually completed for the Student Payroll Attendance Clerk or the student’s direct supervisor to complete the entry on the student employee’s behalf.
Time Approvals
Student employee direct supervisors are responsible for reviewing and approving hourly student employee time in CHRS by the 4th working day of the month following pay period. For instance, hours for April 2025 are due to be validated & approved no later than May 6th.
- Pay Adjustments
Occasionally adjustments need to be made to Student Pay retroactively and these are initiated at the department /college. The Student Payroll Adjustments (PT-11)(opens in new window) form is used to request Pay Transfers, Pay Adjustments. The top of the form is to identify the student, the department and the Pay Period that is affected by this request and needs to be completed in full. You can only affect one pay period per PT-11 form. All fields for the respective actions need to be completed.
Pay Transfers
Used when the department/college needs to transfer funds from one student position to another. For example a student runs out of work study and you were not aware of it in time to request their pay correctly. We can transfer funds from their work study position to their student assistant position. Both positions have to be active in CHRS and must be at the same pay rate. If one position is not active or established a SEA form will have to accompany the PT-11 to activate that position. Additional information on ISA appointment is available for Academic AAS/ASC/ASA. (PDF) Remember that student pay can only be paid or adjusted in tenth of an hour increments, so if you are attempting to just meet a certain dollar amount you will have to calculate this to the nearest tenth of an hour.
Pay Adjustments
Used when adjustments to pay are warranted, either hours or pay rate. If the pay rate is to be adjusted, Payroll will need to receive a SEA form to establish the correct pay rate for the affected student position. Additional information on ISA appointment is available for Academic AAS/ASC/ASA. (PDF) If the hours are to be adjusted CHRS must be updated. Your Payroll Technician will need to be notified when late pay is approved so pay can be requested.
All completed PT-11 forms with any necessary supporting documents are submitted to Payroll and processed on a flow basis. For questions about the status of your PT-11 please contact your Payroll Technician.