A. Persons employed by and on behalf of the state, except those employed by institutions of higher education, including all officers, shall receive their salaries or wages for services rendered in accordance with rules issued by the department of finance and administration.

B. The department of finance and administration may require the automatic direct deposit of a state employee's salary or wages into the employee's account, or into an account established by the department on behalf of the employee, in a financial institution authorized by the United States or one of the several states to receive deposits in the United States. The department of finance and administration shall adopt rules governing the automatic direct deposit of salary or wages. Those rules shall provide the circumstances under which a state employee may, with the approval of the department of finance and administration, withdraw from or elect not to participate in automatic direct deposit.

History: Laws 1933, ch. 157, § 1; 1941 Comp., § 10-405; 1953 Comp., § 5-4-5; Laws 1961, ch. 70, § 1; 1975, ch. 128, § 1; 2005, ch. 93, § 1.

Cross references. — For weekly payment for certain public projects, see 13-4-11 NMSA 1978.

The 2005 amendment, effective June 17, 2005, added Subsection B to provide that the department of finance and administration may require the automatic direct deposit of state employees' salaries and wages into employee accounts at financial institutions.

Municipalities not equal to the state for purposes of payment of wages. — Although a municipality may be an auxiliary of the state government, this relationship does not equate municipalities with the state for purposes of payment of wages and therefore this section is not applicable to municipalities. Rainaldi v. City of Albuquerque, 2014-NMCA-112.

Judgment for damages not within scope. — This section did not concern judgments for damages for breach of contract awarded to discharge tenured teacher. Sanchez v. Board of Educ., 1969-NMSC-063, 80 N.M. 286, 454 P.2d 768.

Payment of accrued vacation time upon termination. — Employees of political subdivisions may, upon termination of their employment, be compensated for their permissible accrued vacation time unless prohibited therefrom by the personnel ordinance or merit system. 1964 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 64-155.

Payment of vacation time improper. — Where an employee continues to be employed by a local public body but simply does not take his vacation time, payment therefor is improper. 1964 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 64-155.

Organization of public employees. — Public employees are certainly not entitled to the right to strike or to bargain collectively concerning the matters of their employment. The right to organize the public employees should be a matter of consideration for the legislature, and since the New Mexico legislature has not seen fit to grant this right, under the present state of the law, such right of organization is not available to public employees. 1955 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 55-6207.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — Validity of statutory classifications based on population, governmental employee salary or pension statutes, 96 A.L.R.3d 538.

81A C.J.S. States § 111.