The Future Salary topic allows you to parameterize how future measurement period salaries will be calculated. Future salaries are those salaries that ProAdmin calculates starting in the measurement period following the last reported amount through the decrement date.

Inflation and Merit sets the overall future increase percentage, salary merit scale, and when the salary increase becomes effective. There is also an option to override some of these assumptions for specific groups of people under the Override Salary Increases topic.

Salary inflation sets the rate at which the future salary will increase. If you select Constant, future salaries will be increased using a fixed rate. Enter the fixed rate as a decimal (e.g. 4% is entered as 0.04) or Plan Constant in the box. If you select Variable by year, future salaries will be increased based on the rate in effect for the specified time period. The From column is the starting year for the inflation rate, which is pre-filled as - for the initial tier. The To column is not editable and will be  calculated as on year less than the year entered in the next following From column. Enter the year in the From column in CCYY format. The Rate column is the annual salary inflation rate during the specified range of years.  Enter the rate as a decimal (e.g. 4% is entered as 0.04).  The last rate entered will be used for all years during and after the last year entered in the From column.

Salary merit scale allows you to select an entry from the Salary Merit Scales library to be used in conjunction with the Salary inflation assumptions.  The total salary scale is (1+inflation)*(1+merit).

The Following the last reported salary, salary increases are effective on the first day of the parameter indicates when ProAdmin should apply the salary increase. There are two choices: Plan Year and Month of. If you select Plan Year, salary increases will be applied beginning with the first day of the plan year (or calendar year for those Salary Definition's where the measurement period is calendar year) after the most recent available empirical salary. (The Plan year is determined by the Plan Year begins parameter under the Plan Attributes of the Plan Definition.)  If you select Month of, salary increases will be applied beginning with the first day of the specified month after the most recent available empirical salary.  Choose the month from the multi-choice field list that becomes available when the Month of radio button is selected.

Salary to Project defines the salary that will be used to determine future measurement period salaries. There are four main choices, most of which are further defined by the rest of the parameters on the screen.

Rolling 12-month average of empirical salaries determines a rolling 12-month average of the most recent available whole month empirical salaries to project salaries. If the measurement period is more frequent than monthly, a rolling measurement period amount is used; 24 measurement periods for semi-monthly, 26 for biweekly and 52 for weekly. Under this choice, Salary Definitions with an annual measurement period will use the greater of the annualized most recent available empirical salary and the (unadjusted) prior plan year salary.

Most recent or prior year measurement period value (see below) indicates that the salary for projection will be the most recent available empirical salary, the prior year's measurement period value, or the greater of the two. You define how to determine which salary to use through the additional check boxes under Most recent and prior year measurement period values (max if both selected) described below.

Most recently reported full measurement period value (if no full period, see below) indicates that the salary for projection will be the most recent available empirical salary. If there is no full measurement period, additional parameters set under If no reported full measurement period (max if both selected), described below,will determine which salary to use.

Field indicates that the projection salary is contained in a data field. Making this choice will activate the multi-choice field that will allow you to select a scalar numeric field in the Data Dictionary.  The Adjust value for measurement periods more frequent than annual allows the data field value to be either an annual value or a measurement period value.  If it is an annual value, check this box and ProAdmin will adjust it for each measurement period; e.g., the field value will be divided by 12 for a monthly measurement period or 26 for a biweekly measurement period, etc.

When projected salaries are based on Most recent or prior year measurement period value (see below) or Most recently reported full measurement period value (if no full period, see below), additional parameters become available to further define the projected salary. The title of these parameters is dynamic: either it's Most recent and prior year values (max if both selected) or it's If no reported full measurement period (max if both selected). (Note: Just the title changes, not the parameters.)

If you check Most recent value,the most recent measurement period's empirical salary will be evaluated to determine if it should be used to project salaries. Check the Gross-up to a full measurement period box if the most recent value should be grossed up to represent a full measurement period using the Salary Definition's allocation methodology.

If you select Prior year value, the prior year’s last measurement period salary will be evaluated to determine if it should be used to project salaries. Check the Gross-up to a full measurement period box if the prior year value should be grossed up to represent a full measurement period using the Salary Definition's allocation methodology. 

If both Most recent value and Prior year value are selected, the maximum of the two values, grossed up as appropriate, is used.

If the measurement period is more frequent than annual, then only the salaries reported in a measurement period are considered, not all the values reported in the current or prior year. If the measurement period is more frequent than biweekly (e.g., annual, monthly), and the underlying reported salaries are reported on a weekly or biweekly basis, then ProAdmin uses these criteria to determine a fully reported measurement period:

• Are the last 2 reported values reported on a weekly or biweekly basis? (i.e., is 1+stopdate-startdate of the last 2 values both equal to 7 or both equal to 14?). If not, does the last reported value cover less than a week/biweek and are next 2 previous reported values reported on a weekly or biweekly basis? 
• Are the stop dates of the weekly/biweekly reported values on the same weekly/biweekly reporting basis? (i.e., when you subtract the stop dates, is the difference is an integer multiple of 7 or 14?)
• Using the weekly/biweekly reporting pattern, is the stop date of the last reported value equal to the last end of weekly/biweek date in the measurement period?
• Is the start date of the earliest reported value less than or equal to beginning of the measurement period?
• Are all the days in [beginning of the measurement period, last end of biweek/week in measurement period] contained in the union of all the reported start & stop dates?

The last check box on the screen, Allocate difference between the projected value and the most recent value over the remaining measurement period, controls the total salary for the last partially reported measurement period. When checked, the total salary for the current measurement period equals this projected value unless the most recent value is greater than the projected value in which case no additional earnings will be assumed. 

For example: The measurement period is annual, the current year value is $23,000 from 01/01/2006 through 06/30/2006, and the prior year value is $49,000 from 01/01/2005 through 12/31/2005. If you select to use the most recent value grossed up to a full measurement period, ProAdmin will calculate a most recent value of $46,000 (23,000 x 12/6) for the current measurement period and projection or comparison purposes. If instead you select to use just the prior year value, and select the Allocate difference between the projected value and the most recent value over the remaining measurement period checkbox, ProAdmin will use $49,000 as the projection value and allocate a salary of 25,000 to the balance of the current measurement period (49,000 – 23,000).

Override by Salary Definition Set allows you to set overrides of certain general salary projection assumptions at the Salary Definition Set level. A grid is presented that includes each Salary Definition Set in the current Project and summarizes the overrides, if any.  There are columns (which may be sorted by clicking on the column name) for the Salary Definition Set name, the Inflation assumption, the Effective date of salary increases and the Field on which projected salaries are based. The top row lists the <default> projection assumptions.  The other rows display a summary of Salary Definition Set overrides entered.  If there is no override, or if an override was entered that did not differ from the <default>, the column value is <none>. Select one or more Salary Definition Sets and click the Edit button to define, modify or clear the projection assumption overrides. 

Note that the override assumptions for multiple Salary Definition Sets can be defined at one time if they are identical. Note also that a single Salary Definition may be projected in two different ways for a calculation if it is included in two different Salary Definition Sets and they have different projection assumptions.

When you choose one or more Salary Definition Sets, the following Override by Salary Definition Set options are available:

Check Salary inflation constant to define a fixed rate at which future salaries will increase. Enter the fixed rate as a decimal (e.g. 4% is entered as 0.04) or Plan Constant in the box.

Check Following the last reported salary, salary increases are effective on the first day of to fine-tune when the salary increase is applicable. There are two choices: Plan Year and Month of. If you select Plan Year, salary increases will be applied beginning with the first day of the plan year (or calendar year for those Salary Definition's where the measurement period is calendar year) after the most recent available empirical salary. If you select Month of, salary increases will be applied beginning with the first day of the specified month after the most recent available empirical salary. Choose the desired month from the multi-choice field that becomes available when Month of is selected.

Check Projected salaries are based on the field to select a scalar numeric field from the Data Dictionary that contains the salary that should be the basis for projections if you don't want to use the most recent reported salary.  This may be appropriate, for example, for participants that work part-time.  ProAdmin will assume the amount in the specified field is an annual salary and will adjust it for each measurement period; e.g., the field value will be divided by 12 for a monthly measurement period or 26 for a biweekly measurement period, etc.