About Progressive or Non-Progressive Calculation Piece Rate

Select the Progressive Calculation check box if you want the system to use progressive calculation to calculate the total amount of a piece rate earning. If you want to use the non-progressive method, clear the check box.

In both types of calculations, the rate varies according to the number of pieces produced.

Progressive Calculation

In progressive calculation, one rate is paid for each piece produced during a pay period up to a set threshold. A different rate is paid for each additional piece produced in the same pay period once the threshold has been reached.

For example, suppose you set up a piece rate table with a pay amount of $1.00 per piece for 1 to 50 pieces, and $1.50 per piece for 51 pieces or more.

If an employee produced 60 pieces during a pay period, the system would calculate a total piece rate pay of $65.00, as follows:

  • $50.00 of pay for the first 50 pieces produced (50 x $1.00), and
  • $15.00 of pay for the next 10 pieces produced (10 x $1.50).

Non-Progressive Calculation

In non-progressive calculation, the same rate is paid for all the pieces produced, but that rate is determined by the number of pieces produced during a pay period.

For example, suppose you set up a piece rate table with a pay amount of $1.00 per piece for 1 to 50 pieces, and $1.50 per piece for 51 pieces or more.

  • If an employee produced 60 pieces during a pay period, the system would calculate $1.50 of pay for each piece produced (60 x $1.50) for a total piece rate pay of $90.00.
  • If an employee produced 40 pieces, the system would calculate $1.00 of pay for each piece produced (40 x $1.00) for a total piece rate pay of $40.00.

Timecard Entries

Note that payroll handles each pay period entry on the timecard separately. For example, suppose you set up a piece rate table with a pay amount of $1.00 per piece for 1 to 50 pieces, and $1.50 per piece for 51 pieces or more.

For progressive calculation:

  • If the employee produced 60 pieces and reports this as one timecard entry, the total piece rate pay would be $65.00, as described earlier in the progressive calculation example.
  • If, however, the employee produced 60 pieces but reports this as two timecard entries of 30 pieces each, the system would calculate a piece rate pay of $60.00 — that is, (30 x $1.00) + (30 x $1.00).

For non-progressive calculation:

  • If the employee produced 60 pieces and reports this as one timecard entry, the total piece rate pay would be $90.00, as described earlier in the non-progressive calculation example.
  • If the employee produced 60 pieces but reports this as two timecard entries of 30 pieces each, the system would calculate a total of $60.00 pay — that is, (30 x $1.00) + (30 x $1.00).