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The core countries of South America have caused the biggest shake-up in the history of the Global Payroll Complexity Index. Economies boosted by international investments have driven the quest for payroll process compliance. With inward investment, largely from Europe and the US, on the rise, organizations wanting to join the global economy have had to give the assurance that business processes and data protection are in line with levels constituted Europe and North America.

Argentina, Mexico and Brazil were ranked in the study as the three countries ‘most worried about ensuring process compliance.’ Brazil also sits highest, alongside Switzerland and Australia, when questioned about the ‘stress of potential failure.’

The issue of managing state and federal rules in Australia, plus industry awards and in-country policies, makes the job challenging. There are few standard processes. Each employee can be affected differently by legislative changes depending on where in the country they are, and if their role or location changes even slightly.

Legislation around employment is a test. Most people are either paid through award or collective bargaining agreements. Each employee in Australia is identified by industry. Each organization is likely to have multiple industries represented in its workforce.

Minimum pay rates and conditions of employment are set across an industry, irrespective of company policy or state location. Calculations for shift workers are very complicated and flexible and ‘fringe’ benefit rules are a minefield to track, compile and report on.

Africa is rather underrepresented in the 2019 Global Payroll Complexity Index, with only South Africa making it into the Top 40. This is likely to change in the 2020 report if predictions made by economists are correct. At least 10 of its 54 countries are predicted to be among the world’s fastest growing economies.

Already, there is great wealth. It is a continent rich with minerals and attracts huge interest from investors from around the world. According to the findings of the survey, many of these companies tend to install just one or two people in situ. Payroll for these organizations is managed either in South Africa, remotely or by bureaus, so contributing to the low levels of payroll complexity in Africa.

Asia, alongside Europe, has the greatest number of countries in the GPCI Top 40. As a continent, it is the fasted climber up the Global Payroll Complexity Index. This is thought to correlate with the expansion of service-centric businesses from the West into these fast-growing economies. This has led to the need to introduce new types of pay and reward structures and to look at global mobility for the first time.

Japan and China both sit in the Top 10, in 5th and 7th position. Alongside these, it is Hong Kong and Malaysia where noticeable increases in payroll complexity have been reported. Singapore and India are the only two countries in Asia to report a significant drop in payroll complexity. In Singapore, this is due to all tax calculations now being handled by the government. Of all countries in the world India is investing most on payroll automation processes.

Europe continues to present the greatest challenge for organizations with an international workforce. Belgium, France, Italy, Germany and Spain dominate the top 10 fore payroll complexity and more than a third of the 40 countries in the 2019 Global Payroll Complexity Index are European.

There is no standardization across the continent. However, common to all are the challenging regulatory and government reporting expectations. These are frequently revised, often with little warning. Tax and social security deductions are testing in almost all European countries.

Status-based employee benefits and compensation, bonus and reward packages are common, as are non-standard annual leave entitlements. For example, there can be up to 14 public holidays a year in some countries, but not all applicable to all employees. The rules around these and other workplace regulations effecting payroll are under the strong influence of trade unions, Works Councils and collective bargaining agreements

In the past two years, rigorous data protection legislation has been introduced across the continent. Despite expectations, it turns out that compliance of the GDPR is not ‘standard’. Many governments in Europe have added their own layers of protection. Outside of the EU, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Ukraine, Montenegro and Monaco are set to follow with new data protection regulations in 2019, adding layers of complexity and uncertainty to already challenging payroll processes.

There are three standout factors that raise the payroll complexity stakes across North America. These are the three levels of legislation: federal, state and local, multiple tax calculations and frequent changes in legislation. Compliance and consistency for multi-state employers can be very difficult. It’s a never-ending battle to figure out the federal, state and local tax for each employee.

While the USA has on paper moved down the Index, this drop has been influenced by the rise in the number of organizations in the US now using opting to use managed or complete BPO payroll services. There is also significant movement to integrated cloud HR platforms and the increased use of process automation in US payroll processes.

Canada has seen a slight fall in its ranking in the Index. This serves to highlight the success that years of industry and government collaboration have had in the bid to create a national payroll infrastructure that ensures that everyone can be paid accurately and on time.

One of the clear outcomes from this partnership is the clarity around national legislative updates. This said, provincial changes to tax and payroll legislation, and union collective agreements do continue to test. Twice monthly is the most common frequency for payroll runs in Canada, but this can become weekly or even daily when all is factored in.

Quebec is the most challenging, also requiring bi-lingual payroll in many instances. Once respondent stated; “If I had to manage payroll in Quebec as well, I would have ranked payroll complexity in Canada, nine out of 10 rather than the four out of 10 I am giving it.”