Payroll FAQs

All payroll checks will be mailed to your current Payroll Check (HR) address in the University of Idaho’s BANNER system, or you may have your paycheck direct deposited into your bank account by setting up Direct Deposit.  

To change your current Payroll Check Address, please either visit Human Resources and fill out a change of address form, or submit an Address Change request on our website.

Payroll at the University of Idaho is on a bi-weekly pay schedule with payments made to employees every other Friday. All employees receive pay on Friday for the previous two weeks, i.e., a two-week lag. If the last day of the payroll period is a holiday, checks will be available to the employee the day before the holiday. Because of the bi-weekly schedule, deadlines for processing payroll related documents are very tight. Any deadline changes will be noted in the University of Idaho Register in advance of the affected pay date.

See Payroll Cutoff Dates on the Payroll Calendars page.

40 hours a week is correct as it is significant for payroll processing and an employee’s paycheck. Following the federal overtime provisions, contained in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employees covered by the Act, unless exempt, must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek, at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay. The Act applies on a workweek basis. An employee's workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring seven consecutive 24-hour periods. The University of Idaho starts the work week on Sunday. Thus hours worked Sunday through Saturday fall under the workweek and hours worked over 40 hours in this time period occur at the overtime rate.

Yes, it does matter! Employees are able to elect their overtime compensation: cash or paid-time banked (comp-time). For example, an employee elects for comp-time, and works 50 hours in week 1 and 30 hours in week 2. Then the employee is paid for 70 hours (40 + 30) and the 10 hours of overtime from week 1 is compensated as 15 hours of comp-time banked. This can be a significant difference in an employee’s pay check. If this occurs, the Payroll Department is unable to make adjustments to that paycheck, as it follows the FLSA and is paid out correctly.

For more information, employees can contact the Payroll Department and/or review the US Department of Labor Overtime Pay webpage.

Employees can authorize the University of Idaho to directly wire your paycheck to your specified bank using a checking or savings account.

Direct Deposit can be set up online. If you have never set up direct deposit before please see our W-4 and Direct Deposit Setup Instructions.

Employees are encouraged to elect to receive their W-2 electronically. To do so, log in to VandalWeb and select Employees > Payroll > Electronic W-2 Consent Form. If you have elected to receive an electronic copy of your W-2, you may find it in VandalWeb under W-2 Year End Earnings Statement.

For Board Appointed employees who have not elected to receive an electronic copy of their W-2, these will be mailed to your department. 

For Temporary employees, your W-2 will be mailed to the address our office has on file for you. To ensure we have your current address, please submit an Address Change request.

If you are a fulltime student at the University of Idaho and work for the University of Idaho, then you are exempt from paying Social Security and Medicare. A fulltime student is an undergraduate student taking at least 12 credits and a graduate student taking at least six credits.

Exempt status is only good for one (1) year and you revert to single status with zero (0) allowances on February 15th of the following year.