I certainly believe that a payroll clerk CANNOT be allowed to EDIT standing data/master files, but my concern was can they VIEW the standing data? is it okay if they VIEW ONLY and not edit?
If the clerk is preparing the payroll they would not to know what pay grade employees are on/hourly rates of pay, employees tax codes (or equivalent) to make calculation of tax deductions, etc.
In a similar vein a sales clerk would need access to view customers’ master files in order to know their entitlements to discounts, their credit limits, or whether a “stop” has been put on their account.