Role & Pay
Configuring union details, benefits, pay rates, increments, allowances, and reimbursements
Greenroom no longer organizes payee configuration into tabs. For a payee still being set up, the payee detail page is one continuous, always-editable form with a single save bar, including Basics, Representation, and Trust. Role & Pay, as used on this page, is a documentation grouping for four of those sections: Engagement & union, Pay, Allowances & reimbursements, and Deductions. Unlike the old tabbed layout, all four render for every payee type — employees, loan-outs, contractors, and vendors alike. (Individual fields inside them can still be conditional for a given type — a vendor isn't required to have a standing pay rate, for example — but the sections themselves aren't hidden by payee type.)
Payment and Payment history moved out of this form
Once a payee is fully onboarded, opening their record no longer lands on this editable form at all — it opens on a read-only summary (payment direction, payment method, and payment history), with an explicit Edit link back into the form described on this page. Role & Pay's four sections live only in that edit view. See Payment Details for the read-only summary and where payment method actually lives now.
Sections
| Section | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Engagement & union | Union or non-union status, agreement, job title, department (union-specific) |
| Pay | Negotiated pay rates (effective-dated) and contractual premiums (e.g., Dance Captain, Media Fee) |
| Allowances & reimbursements | Per diem, housing, travel, and other allowance, reimbursement, or taxable-earning line items |
| Deductions | 401(k) participation, health insurance, garnishments, advance repayment, and other withheld amounts |
Engagement & union
Determines the payee's union membership and role classification, and drives rate/minimum lookups and union reporting.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Union | The applicable union, or "Non-union." Only unions configured at the company level are available. |
| Agreement | The union agreement that applies. When the company has declared exactly one contract for the chosen union, this is auto-derived and shown read-only instead of picked; see Union Configuration for the full behavior. |
| Job Title | Selected from the titles defined on the chosen agreement. |
| Department | Only shown for unions whose configuration carries a department catalog (today: IATSE Local 798 / Hair & Makeup) — a required dropdown of that union's departments. Not shown at all for other unions. |
| Alt job title | Optional free text, displayed on pay stubs when set. |
There's no "Union member (dues apply)" checkbox — it was removed; dues are driven by the union's own configured deduction rules, not a membership flag. For details on changing a payee's union, see Union Configuration.
The block also states the payee's tax classification — Employee, Loan-out, Contractor, or Vendor — rather than offering it, since that's fixed when the payee is created, and it spells out the consequence: every engagement on this payee is paid and reported that way, and paying the same person under a different classification means a second payee record via Add payee. See Payee Types.
Pay
Set up the payee's compensation structure. This section has two parts:
| Part | Description |
|---|---|
| Rates | The negotiated, effective-dated pay scale — amount, GL code, and an effective date range. A payroll run resolves whichever rate is active on that run's pay-period date, so adding a future-dated rate row is how you schedule a pay increase — there's no separate "increments" control. |
| Premiums | Contractual add-ons on top of base pay (flat amount or percent of scale), such as Actors' Equity's Dance Captain or Media Fee premiums. This part is config-driven and only appears for unions whose agreement actually offers contractual premiums (in practice, only Actors' Equity today) or for a payee who already carries one. |
How a Rate row is named and priced depends on the union: AEA is the one union whose CBA splits pay by Classification (Performance or Rehearsal), priced weekly or hourly. Every other union, and every non-union payee, instead gives each rate its own free-text Name and can price it weekly, hourly, or as an 8/10/12-hour day rate. For a non-union payee with an hourly or day rate, the row previews the applicable New York overtime tiers inline, with a link to a fuller explainer and to the state minimum-wage page — a union's own CBA governs its overtime instead, so union payees don't see this preview. A below-minimum rate warns but never blocks saving.
Non-union Contractors and Loan-outs can also switch Pay to Invoice based payment instead of a standing rate — a radio choice above the Rates table. In that mode there's no rate row to maintain; gross amounts are entered per payroll run from the Vendors & Contractors step instead, and choosing it requires a tax ID on file. Employees, vendors (already invoice-only by type), and union engagements (priced from the CBA) don't get this toggle.
Multiple pay rates can be configured for a single payee, with different rates applying to different names/classifications or time periods. Both wages and premiums are taxed and counted in the dues & benefits basis. For agreements that carry a percent-of-salary vacation rule (today: ATPAM Broadway/Off-Broadway/Developmental), a Total Weekly Salary summary also appears, totaling base pay, any "Overscale Increase" premium, other flat premiums, and the computed vacation percentage.
Allowances vs. reimbursements
This section now has three sub-lists, each with its own Add button and its own name dropdown — there's no longer a single shared control. Allowances and reimbursements are conceptually different (an allowance is a recurring or one-time extra payment not tied to a specific documented expense, e.g. a wardrobe stipend; a reimbursement repays a specific, incurred expense, e.g. a submitted travel receipt), and Check separately confirmed (TCG-2010) that a genuinely taxable per diem or allowance shouldn't be treated as a tax-free reimbursement. What actually shipped (TCG-2087) resolves that by adding a third, distinctly-taxed list rather than by taxing Allowances differently from Reimbursements:
| Allowances | Reimbursements | Taxable earnings | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it's for | A recurring or one-time extra payment not tied to a specific documented expense | Repaying a specific, incurred expense | A nonaccountable or above-federal-rate per diem, or any allowance that's genuinely taxable |
| Tax treatment | Non-taxable — paid on top of wages, never withheld, not in the dues basis | Non-taxable — paid on top of wages, never withheld | Taxable — added to gross wages: income-tax withholding + FICA for employees, or the 1099-NEC bucket for contractors. Not in the union dues basis by default. |
| Standard options | Travel, Per Diem – Non-Taxable, Housing, Car, Cell phone, Meal, Wardrobe, Kit Rental, Wellness allowances (plus Other, freeform) | "Reimbursement" (a single generic standard option, plus Other, freeform) | Per Diem – Taxable (plus Other, freeform) |
Allowances and reimbursements ended up taxed the same
Despite the original plan to differentiate allowance vs. reimbursement tax treatment, what shipped taxes Allowances and Reimbursements identically (both non-taxable, on top of wages) and instead adds Taxable earnings as a separate, clearly-labeled third list for anything that actually needs to be W-2 wages or 1099-NEC income — a taxable/above-rate per diem is the main example. If you need a line item to be taxable, use Taxable earnings, not an Allowance.
Deductions
The old "Benefits" section is now folded into Deductions — one list of amounts withheld from pay. The picker offers seven standard options, and anything else can be typed through Other:
| Option | Notes |
|---|---|
| 401K Contribution | The manual, payee-level retirement opt-in — this is what "Benefits" meant historically on this page |
| Wage Garnishment | See the warning below |
| Tax Levy / Tax Garnishment | Separate from wage garnishment; same warning applies |
| Advance Repayment | Paying back an advance out of subsequent pay |
| Union Initiation Dues | See the note below — this one is genuinely confusing |
| Health insurance | |
| Equipment |
Why 'Union Initiation Dues' is in this picker when union dues aren't entered here
It looks like a contradiction with the note below, and it isn't. Ongoing union working dues are calculated from the union agreement and never entered by hand. A one-time initiation fee for a new member is a different thing, and it does get entered manually — normally on the Union Reports step of a run, where it amortizes over future runs. The picker option exists because it was being typed through "Other" anyway; giving it a standard name keeps those rows consistent.
Garnishment here is a raw deduction line, not a compliant garnishment workflow
Selecting either Wage Garnishment or Tax Levy / Tax Garnishment adds a manually-entered deduction line — there's no order tracking, priority enforcement between multiple garnishments, withholding-limit calculation, or auto-termination when an order is satisfied. If you need to actually process a court-ordered wage garnishment, child support order, or IRS levy, see Known Gaps before using this field — the structured, compliant workflow for that isn't built yet.
Pre-tax, and what kind of pre-tax
Each deduction row has a Pre-tax checkbox. A new row starts post-tax; picking a name doesn't tick it for you. Only a retirement contribution belongs pre-tax by default — a garnishment, a tax levy, an advance repayment, and union dues all come out of pay that's already been taxed.
Tick Pre-tax and a Benefit type picker appears on the same row. This is what tells Check which kind of pre-tax benefit the deduction is, which decides the contribution limit Check enforces and the box it lands in on a W-2. The options are:
401(k) · Roth 401(k) · 403(b) · Roth 403(b) · 457 · SIMPLE IRA · HSA · FSA — medical · FSA — dependent care
An untyped pre-tax row still works, but Greenroom can't tell Check what it is, so it's treated as an unknown rather than assumed harmless.
A loan-out can't defer their own wages
Save a pre-tax deduction on a loan-out and Greenroom refuses it:
"This payee is a loan-out, so they cannot defer their own wages. A loan-out has no withholding for a pre-tax deduction to reduce, so this line would do one thing only — cut what they are paid. Switch it to post-tax and it will save. Their employer contributions are unaffected and still calculate and remit as normal."
The one exception is an HSA or FSA, which isn't a salary deferral: add it under Deductions, tick Pre-tax, and set Benefit type to HSA or FSA — that row will save.
Employer contributions are untouched by any of this. They calculate and remit as normal for a loan-out, which is what the union agreements require.
A one-off pre-tax line entered in the run's edit drawer can only be marked Pre-tax or Post-tax — it has no Benefit type. A standing election on the payee's record is the right artifact for an HSA anyway, and it's the one that carries the type.
This covers 401(k) only — not union-negotiated benefits
Union dues and representative fees are not entered here — dues come from the union configuration (see Engagement & union, above), and representative fees come from the Representatives section. This page also doesn't cover union-negotiated benefit contributions — pension, vacation, and annuity/NBF fund payments. Those are calculated automatically from the payee's selected union agreement, not entered manually per payee anywhere on this page, and the exact formula (e.g., percent of base salary vs. percent of salary-plus-vacation) varies by union and isn't fully documented in these docs yet.
Fee, advance, and royalty-based pay (SDC / USA 829)
SDC directors and choreographers, and USA 829 designers, aren't paid on a weekly-salary basis — their compensation is a negotiated fee plus an advance, drawn down by dated milestones, plus a weekly royalty minimum once the show is running.
This is now recorded in its own place, not through the Pay section on this page. A payee on one of those job titles gets a Fee, advance & royalty card on their record instead — see Fees, Advances & Royalties for how to record the deal, the payments already made, and the agreement's milestone schedule.
Don't use the weekly-salary fields for a fee
Representing a fee as a weekly rate produces incorrect pay and tax treatment. If the Fee, advance & royalty card isn't showing on the payee's record, check the job title first — SDC Associates and USA 829 Assistants genuinely do take a weekly minimum and are configured like any other weekly payee.
Greenroom still doesn't disburse a fee installment; everything recorded is money the production moved itself. See Known Gaps.
Payroll readiness
Each payee tracks its own "what's left for payroll" checklist rather than a per-section completion badge. The hard requirements that block a payee from being run-ready are:
- A pay rate — not required for vendors, who bill per invoice instead of a standing rate. This checklist item is unaffected by the invoice-based toggle described above: it's driven purely by payee type, so a non-union Contractor or Loan-out who switches to invoice-based pay can still show as needing a rate here even though the Pay section itself no longer asks them for one.
- Required documents on file (e.g., I-9) — data-driven by payee type; vendors are generally exempt.
- Tax setup resolved — a tax ID on file.
A missing payment method is never on this list — a payee with no payment profile on file defaults to a paper check, which is a valid state. Tax withholding status is tracked separately as a non-blocking advisory for Check-managed payees, since Check (not Greenroom) is the system of record for W-4/state withholding.
Best Practices
- Configure union details first, in Engagement & union — this affects available pay rates and benefits
- Keep pay rates current by adding a new effective-dated row rather than editing history when changes occur
- Use the correct control for the money involved — an allowance or reimbursement dropdown entry, not a deduction, and vice versa
- Document all rate changes with effective dates for audit purposes
- Ensure compliance with union agreements and applicable labor laws
Next Steps
After configuring Role & Pay, continue with Tax Information or see Running Payroll to process payroll.