The most important HCM terminology, explained one acronym at a time.

A US federal law that gives eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period for specified reasons — the birth or adoption of a child, a serious personal health condition, or caring for a family member with one. In HCM you model FMLA as an absence type / plan with its own eligibility (generally 12 months of service and 1,250 hours worked) and entitlement rules. It's the legal reference behind the plan, not something you configure line by line.

The federal law that sets minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and child-labor standards. Its most-used HCM consequence is the exempt vs. non-exempt distinction: non-exempt workers must be paid overtime (typically 1.5× base) for hours over 40 in a week, while exempt workers are not. This drives the FLSA status flag on jobs and positions, which in turn tells payroll how to calculate overtime.

Prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities and requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation. In HCM it informs how you capture accommodation requests, write job requirements, and support disability disclosure for EEO reporting. Like other Section 1 laws, it's referenced when designing processes rather than configured as an absence plan.

An example of a state-level FMLA (this one for Wisconsin). Many states have their own family/medical leave laws with different eligibility, duration, or paid-vs-unpaid rules than the federal FMLA — and they often run concurrently with, or in addition to, the federal entitlement. Practically, that means you may configure a separate state absence plan to track state entitlement independently of the federal one.

Protects the reemployment rights and benefits of people who leave a civilian job to perform military service. It guarantees they can return to their role (or a comparable one) and continue certain benefits. In HCM this is modeled as a military leave of absence type with continued-benefit handling and reinstatement rules.

Governs the privacy and security of protected health information (PHI). Its main HCM impact is on data security — which roles can see medical, disability, or benefits-related information, and how that data is stored and shared. So HIPAA shapes your security profiles and role access rather than any absence plan.

Lets employees (and dependents) continue their group health coverage for a limited time after a qualifying event such as termination or a reduction in hours — usually by paying the full premium themselves. In HCM it's a benefits offboarding concern: qualifying life events and terminations trigger COBRA eligibility, which is frequently handed off to a third-party administrator.

A combined paid-leave bank that rolls vacation, personal, and often sick time into one accruing plan, so employees draw from a single balance instead of separate buckets. Configured as an accrual absence plan with a rate, ceilings, carryover rules, and a running balance.

Paid leave specifically for illness or medical appointments. Set up as an absence type tied to a sick plan; kept separate from vacation when the employer doesn't use a combined PTO bank. Several states mandate minimum sick-leave accrual, so its rules are often driven by local law.

Paid vacation time, tracked as its own accrual plan with a balance — used when the employer keeps vacation and sick separate rather than folding both into PTO. Accrual rates commonly increase with tenure.

Leave for a birthing parent around childbirth and recovery. It's frequently paired with STD (for income during recovery) and FMLA (for job protection). Modeled as a qualification-based or entitlement absence plan. ML is simply an alternate short code for the same thing.

Leave for the non-birthing parent to bond with and care for a new child following birth or adoption. Usually an entitlement absence type (a fixed number of days or weeks) rather than an accrual.

A gender-neutral bonding leave for any new parent, increasingly used in place of separate maternity and paternity codes. One entitlement plan covers all eligible parents, which simplifies configuration and reporting.

Paid time off following the death of a family member. Typically granted as a fixed number of days per occurrence rather than an accruing balance, so it's configured as an entitlement absence type with a per-event limit.

Paid leave to serve on a jury or respond to a court summons. Set up as an entitlement absence type — usually without accrual, since it's used only when called — and often required to be paid by state law.

An umbrella term for an extended, authorized absence, often unpaid and often longer than everyday time off (medical, personal, military, etc.). In HCM, "LOA" shows up both as an assignment status (the worker is on leave) and as a category of long-duration absence types.

Wage-replacement leave for a temporary disability — an illness, injury, or childbirth recovery — usually lasting from a few weeks up to a few months. Configured as an absence plan, and typically linked to a payroll STD earnings element so the employee is paid a percentage of salary while out (see 3.13).

Continues income replacement after STD ends, for disabilities that last months or years. It's both an absence status and an insured benefit, usually administered by a third-party carrier, with its own premium deduction on the payroll side (see 3.14).

The mechanism by which leave balances build up over time — per pay period, monthly, or annually. In HCM an accrual plan defines the earning rate, ceilings (maximum balance), carryover at year-end, and any disbursement or payout rules. Accrual is what makes a balance grow; taking leave is what draws it down.

The unit an entitlement or balance is expressed in — Hours or Days. Set on the absence plan, and it must stay consistent with how time is recorded and paid. A plan measured in hours but requested in days (or vice versa) is a classic source of balance errors.

A cumulative total from the start of the year to the current date — where "year" may be the calendar, plan, or fiscal year depending on setup. Used throughout absence and payroll reporting to show accumulated accruals, usage, earnings, or deductions so far this year.

The running leave (or time) balance accumulated year to date — accruals earned minus time taken since the start of the year. It's the number an employee sees when checking "how much leave do I have left," and the figure absence reports reconcile against.

The fundamental building block of payroll: one element represents one thing that's paid, deducted, or accrued — salary, a bonus, a tax, a benefit contribution. Everything on a payslip flows through elements, and each element carries the rules for how it's calculated and processed.

An element classification for pay that adds to gross — salary, hourly wages, overtime, bonus, commission. Earnings elements increase what the employee is owed before taxes and deductions are applied.

An element classification for amounts subtracted from pay — taxes, benefit contributions, garnishments, retirement. Deductions can be pre-tax (reduce taxable income, like 401(k) or medical premiums) or post-tax (taken after tax, like Roth or garnishments).

Federal income tax withheld from wages based on the employee's W-4 elections (filing status, dependents, adjustments). It's a statutory deduction the payroll engine calculates automatically using current federal tax tables.

The payroll tax that funds Social Security and Medicare. It's split into two parts — the Social Security (OASDI) portion and the Medicare portion — and is paid by both the employee and the employer in matching shares.

The federal program providing retirement, survivor, and disability benefits, funded by the OASDI portion of FICA. In payroll it's a fixed percentage applied up to an annual wage base cap — once an employee's wages pass that cap for the year, Social Security tax stops.

The formal name for the Social Security portion of FICA. When you see "OASDI" on a payslip, it's the Social Security tax — the same fixed percentage up to the wage base described above. Payroll systems often label the line OASDI rather than "Social Security."

Federal health insurance for people 65+ and certain younger people with disabilities, funded by the Medicare portion of FICA. Unlike Social Security, Medicare tax has no wage cap — it applies to all wages — and higher earners pay an additional Medicare tax above a threshold.

The formal name for the Medicare (Part A) portion of FICA — the "HI" tax that funds hospital insurance. It's the same Medicare withholding described above, just under its statutory name. Seeing HI and MED together simply means the Medicare line.

A federal tax that funds unemployment programs — and it's paid only by the employer, never withheld from the employee. It applies to a relatively low annual wage base per employee, and employers receive a credit for the state unemployment tax (SUTA) they pay.

The state counterpart to FUTA — an employer unemployment tax whose rate varies by state and by the employer's experience rating (how much its former workers have claimed). Because rates and wage bases differ per state, SUTA is configured per state jurisdiction.

The insurance program that SUTA funds — the terms SUI and SUTA are often used interchangeably. It's mainly an employer cost, though a few states also require a small employee contribution. It provides temporary income to workers who lose their jobs.

The payroll element side of STD: the element that either pays the short-term disability wage replacement (a percentage of salary while the employee is on STD leave) or withholds the premium for STD insurance coverage. It's the pay mechanism behind the STD leave in Section 2.10.

The payroll element side of LTD: usually a deduction element that withholds the long-term disability insurance premium each pay period (and, where the employer self-administers, may also handle benefit payment). It complements the LTD benefit/absence in Section 2.11.

Insurance covering job-related injury or illness — medical costs and lost wages for work injuries. In payroll it's tracked for premium calculation, which depends on wages and each job's risk classification (a roofer's rate differs from an accountant's). It's an employer cost, not an employee deduction.

Hours worked beyond the standard threshold — under the FLSA, typically more than 40 in a workweek — paid at a premium rate (usually 1.5×, "time and a half"). Captured in Time & Labor and fed to payroll as a distinct overtime earnings element. Only non-exempt employees are entitled to it.

Standard worked hours paid at the base rate, up to the overtime threshold. Regular hours are the baseline earnings element — the default bucket time lands in before any overtime, premium, or absence rules reclassify it.

An employment category for workers on a standard full schedule (commonly 40 hours/week, though the definition varies by employer). Full-time status typically drives benefits eligibility and full accrual rates.

An employment category for workers scheduled for fewer than full-time hours. Part-time status affects benefits eligibility and often prorates accruals and other entitlements to match reduced hours.

A ratio expressing scheduled hours against a full-time schedule: 1.0 = full-time, 0.5 = half-time, and so on. FTE is used for headcount and budgeting (two 0.5 workers = 1.0 FTE) and to prorate accruals, benefits, and entitlements for part-time staff.

A partition that groups payroll and legislative data by country/legislation. The US LDG holds all US payroll, tax, and absence rules; a multi-country enterprise has one LDG per legislation. Every payroll statutory unit maps to an LDG, which is why the LDG is one of the first structures you create — much of Absence and Payroll setup hangs off it.

The US anti-discrimination framework requiring fair treatment regardless of protected characteristics. In HCM, jobs and positions carry EEO categories (the EEO-1 job classifications), and employee demographics feed compliance reporting such as the annual EEO-1 report. So EEO is both a job/position classification and a reporting driver.