OKLAHOMA CITY (May 20, 2009) – Legislation helping with the transition of state employees onto a more efficient and cost-effective biweekly payroll system is one step closer to becoming law following House passage today.

House Bill 1111 puts a structure in place to ensure the smooth transition from a monthly to a biweekly payroll system, which has already been started by the Office of State Finance.

Under current law, the Office of State Finance is authorized to convert state payroll to a biweekly system and intends to do so over the next few years on an agency by agency basis. An example of an agency already in the process of converting payroll is the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT), which plans to complete this conversion in the upcoming months.

The legislation, which is supported by the Oklahoma Public Employees Association, is needed to establish protections for state employees when this change occurs.

Rep. Jason Murphey, author of the bill, said the bill is part of the House Republican effort to modernize and streamline government. Currently, state agencies have to anticipate time worked in order to meet the monthly payroll.

The agencies then have to go back and make corrections for actual time worked, a process which wastes time and resources. Transitioning to a biweekly payroll would allow for payroll to reflect actual time worked.

Murphey stressed that no state employee will lose any pay during this transition.

"This change will allow the state to pay employees for actual time worked instead of the inefficient guessing-game currently employed under a monthly payroll system," said Murphey, R-Guthrie.

The bill passed the House with a vote of 88-13 and now returns to the Senate for final consideration.