Payroll Clerk

Overview and Responsibilities

Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota is seeking candidates who are eager to contribute to its Lasallian Catholic mission of awakening, nurturing, and empowering learners to ethical lives of service and leadership. We invite individuals to help transform lives through education, inspired by the Catholic Intellectual Tradition’s quest to understand the human experience through faith and reason and its embrace of all who are dedicated to learning from one another through authentic conversations in search of the truth. We are especially interested in and give preference to candidates who demonstrate a vision to create and nurture initiatives that will advance our mission within the scope of their duties and who will foster a culture of dialogue that, with respect for all people, supports the search for meaning and purpose in pursuit of excellence.

Job Summary

Reporting to the Senior Payroll Manager, the Payroll Clerk ensures the timely and accurate processing of employee compensation while maintaining compliance with federal, state, and local labor laws. Serving as the primary point of contact for payroll-related inquiries, this role collaborates closely with Human Resources and Finance to manage timekeeping, wage adjustments, and tax withholdings. Additionally, the Payroll Clerk will reconcile payroll-related general ledger accounts and play a key role in the upcoming implementation of a third‑party payroll system.

Salary Range: $20.00 - $24.00 / hour

Main Duties & Responsibilities

• Calculate standard pay, overtime, shifts, bonuses, commissions, and retro‑pay accurately.
• Process bi‑weekly payroll, using automated payroll software.
• Review and verify timesheets.
• Execute direct deposits, manual checks, and wage garnishments (child support, tax levies, wage assignments).
• Maintain employee payroll profiles, updating pay rate changes, tax withholdings (W‑4 forms), direct deposit details, and benefit deductions.
• Balance and reconcile payroll accounts before and after pay runs to ensure accuracy.
• Ensure compliance with Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), state wage laws, and organizational policies.
• Assist with quarterly and annual tax reporting, including W‑2 verification and distribution.
• Generate regular and ad‑hoc payroll reports for management, accounting, and HR departments.
• Assist in internal and external payroll audits by gathering required documentation and records.
• Prepare general ledger entries related to payroll expenses and payroll taxes.
• Address and resolve employee payroll discrepancies, questions, and requests in a timely, accurate, and professional manner.
• Coordinate with HR regarding new hires, terminations, leaves of absence, and employee status changes.

Qualifications

Experience and Education Requirements

• High school diploma or equivalent required; Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or Business Administration preferred.
• 1–3 years of hands‑on payroll, bookkeeping, or administrative accounting experience.
• Experience in an office environment is essential, with preference for experience in a financial or higher education setting.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office including Excel; Word; PowerPoint.
• Experience in one or more of the following is preferred: payroll, bookkeeping, accounting, financial reporting, office administration.

Essential Knowledge & Skills

• Demonstrated ability to handle sensitive personal and financial employee information with absolute confidentiality and discretion.
• Understanding of labor laws, payroll tax regulations, wage garnishments, and withholding guidelines.
• Customer Service skills; welcoming in person, phone and email
• Numerical aptitude and financial literacy
• Must have learning agility, with aptitude for quickly acquiring and retaining new information
• Team collaborator
• Ability to work with a diverse population with varying degrees of financial aptitude
• Comfort working in a professional business environment
• Ability to prioritize, meet deadlines and manage multiple projects
• Create varied training materials and programs
• Works independently with little to no supervision, as well as collaboratively with others

• Resolves problems through research and personal inquiry.
• Process orientation and compliance mindset to collect, analyze, interpret, and report data in a timely manner resulting in accurate and detailed output.
• Organize, prioritize, and complete multiple work assignments in a complex work environment.
• Working familiarity with process mapping and documentation to communicate well with non‑financial stakeholders.
• High level of attention to detail.
• Emotional intelligence and organizational savvy to maintain discretion and confidentiality.

• Confidence working with multiple software programs.
• Confidence and experience analyzing business processes and data and making recommendations based on those evaluations.

Physical Demands

• Sedentary work. Sedentary work involves lifting no more than 10 pounds at a time and occasionally lifting or carrying articles like docket files, ledgers, and small tools. Although a sedentary job is defined as one which involves sitting, a certain amount of walking and standing is often necessary in carrying out job duties. Jobs are sedentary if walking and standing are required occasionally and other sedentary criteria are met.
• Light work. Light work involves lifting no more than 20 pounds at a time with frequent lifting or carrying of objects weighing up to 10 pounds. Even though the weight lifted may be very little, a job is in this category when it requires a good deal of walking or standing, or when it involves sitting most of the time with some pushing and pulling of arm or leg controls. To be considered capable of performing a full or wide range of light work, you must have the ability to do substantially all of these activities.
• Medium work. Medium work involves lifting no more than 50 pounds at a time with frequent lifting or carrying of objects weighing up to 25 pounds.
• Heavy work. Heavy work involves lifting no more than 100 pounds at a time with frequent lifting or carrying of objects weighing up to 50 pounds.

Physical Hazards – Health and Safety Concerns

• General office environments
• Ergonomics
• Noise
• Chemicals
• Driving
• Biohazards
• Extreme climate (Hot/Cold)

Application Requirements

Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota believes inclusion and human dignity contributes to a robust academic and work environment and is critical to achieving the University's mission in an increasingly diverse society. Individuals with expertise and diverse skills from underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to apply. Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. The successful candidate must support, respect, and advance the mission of Saint Mary's University as a Lasallian Catholic institution.

Saint Mary’s offers a comprehensive benefit package including health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance, flexible spending, retirement pension plan, and both undergraduate and graduate tuition remission plans.

All offers of employment are contingent upon the successful completion of a criminal background check.