At a glance
- Piecework pays by output instead of time: per acre, load, bale, bushel, piece or any unit you choose.
- In PayCub, an income field can use a custom quantity label instead of "hours".
- The pay stub shows the quantity, unit and rate, for example "2.5 acres @ $95.00 / acre", with year-to-date quantities.
Setting up a piecework field
- Go to Payroll Settings and add (or edit) an income field for the work, for example "Seeding" or "Hauling".
- Set its unit label to the unit you pay by, such as acres, hectares, loads, bales, bushels, pieces or units. Standard fields stay at "hours".
- Choose how the earnings are treated for tax, CPP and EI, the same as any other income field.
Paying piecework
On each pay stub, enter the quantity and the rate per unit. PayCub calculates the earnings and shows them with your unit label, so employees can see exactly what they were paid for. A piecework field can be added more than once on the same stub, for example when the same work is paid at different rates.
Year-to-date totals on the stub and in reports show quantities in your units (acres, loads, and so on), not hours.
Employment standards still apply
Piecework is still wages, so the usual employment standards rules apply:
- Minimum wage. Minimum wage rules generally still apply to piece-rate workers, though some provinces set special rates or exemptions (often in agriculture). Check your province's rules, and add a top-up earning if needed.
- Vacation pay and holiday pay are calculated on piecework earnings too (see Vacation pay by province and Holidays, overtime and sick days by province).
- Special industries. Agriculture and some other industries have their own rules in several provinces. Check the official source for your province.