N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 9, § 151.5 – Performance advance eligibility.

(a) Only employees whose basic annual salary is below the job rate for their position and whose performance has been summarized as outstanding or effective during the preceding six-month evaluation period shall be eligible to receive performance advances. Employees whose positions are unallocated but are equated to salary grades by the Director of the Budget shall be eligible for performance advances as if allocated to the equated grade.
(b) Service during fiscal years 1978-79, 1979-80 and 1980-81, in a position certified as seasonal by the Director of the Budget to the Comptroller, by an employee shall be creditable toward the service requirements for performance advances in an eligible employee's graded position under the following circumstances:
1. (1) the employee, immediately prior to such seasonal service, was employed in an annual salaried graded position;
2. (2) the employee returns to an annual salaried graded position in the same or lower grade immediately after service in such seasonal position; and
3. (3) the salary rate in the seasonal position was higher than or equal to the hiring rate of the graded position.
  Any resulting performance advance in the graded position shall be effective no earlier than the employee's return to the annual salaried graded position.
(c) Employees who are eligible for a performance advance in a lower salary grade but are promoted or appointed to a higher salary grade before receiving their next advance in the lower grade, and who did not receive an advance in the higher grade prior to the date when an evaluation in the lower grade would have been due, are entitled to a reconstructed promotion salary reflecting the performance advance which they would have received in the lower grade. Such reconstructed promotion salary shall be effective on the date that the performance advance would have been paid in the lower grade. The performance advance used to reconstruct the promotion salary of such employees shall be based on a presumptive rating of effective.The performance advance used to reconstruct the salary of an employee promoted from a position in which he/she was subject to the variable rate payment system shall be one sixth of the salary range of the lower grade. The performance advance used to reconstruct the promotion salary of any other eligible employee shall be one third of the salary range of the lower grade.
(d) Service in a lower salary grade in a position which has been reallocated is creditable toward the service requirement in the grade to which the position has been reallocated for any performance advance due on or after April 1, 1979.
(e) Service in a higher salary grade by employees who are appointed or demoted to a lower salary grade is creditable toward the in-grade service requirement for a performance advance in the lower salary grade.