Why do I need to separate employees that make more than $100,000 annual salary from other employees in calculating payroll costs?

You are asked to separate this group of employees because for each individual employee, the total amount of cash compensation eligible for forgiveness may not exceed an annual salary of $100,000, as prorated for the Covered Period. For an 8-week Covered Period, that total is $15,385. For a 24-week Covered Period, that total is $46,154.