Employee Hours & Overtime Labor Laws

This exception is very limited, so you should not assume you work in a “learned or artistic profession” just because your job involves some creativity. The New York State Department of Labor enforces a law that protects nurses from working overtime. In this case, ‘overtime’ means over the number of scheduled and predetermined hours a nurse has agreed to work. Long-term, look at reducing downtime and increasing productivity with GPS time tracking apps like Hubstaff. You can use the information you gain from Hubstaff to cross-train your employees, create better and more efficient schedules, and eliminate the need for overtime entirely. Here’s an example of how this might look if an employee works an extra 15 hours one week. In the construction industry, overtime applies to any worker, no matter how much they are paid or what their position is.

Your state may have implemented a minimum salary for overtime-exempt employees, or the minimum pay for overtime work may have increased. If you’re uncertain whether there were any changes, be sure to look up the laws specific to your state. In order to be a valid exception to California overtime rules, an alternative workweek schedule must be approved by at least two-thirds of affected employees in a work unit by secret ballot. What is overtime An employee’s regular rate of pay is based on the amount of calculated earnings divided by the number of hours worked. This includes a base rate and any additional compensation such as commission or nondiscretionary bonuses. The chart below explains what is included in determining the regular rate of pay. Simply put, overtime pay is an extra amount that employers must pay employees who work more than 40 hours per week.

States Where Overtime Is Based On Hours Worked In The Day

It requires that eligible workers who work more than a 40-hour week be paid 1.5 times their base pay rate for every hour worked over their usual amount. This doesn’t necessarily apply to work performed on nights, weekends, and holidays, unless mentioned in the employment agreement—or if those hours are also in excess of 40 for that week. Certain states may require that employers pay an overtime rate on some holidays, however. To be an exempt employee, you need to make twice the minimum wage. State overtime laws do not cover certain employees who are considered “professional,” “managerial,” “executive,” or “administrative” employees.

The Fair Labor Standards Act governs what employers must do under federal law. Understanding and properly applying the FLSA is essential for any company, whether you have four employees or 40,000. Following the law is important for obvious reasons, however, there are also intangible benefits. We could log quite a few overtime hours just talking about the ins and outs of the complex overtime regulations. But the short answers to your two questions are “yes” and “no,” respectively — at least under federal law. Multiply the overtime rate by the number of hours the employee has worked overtime to get overtime earnings. Then the standard time-and-a-half and double-time rules apply to any overtime hours worked.

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• Unless you work for the state or federal government, an employer providing compensatory or “comp time” instead of overtime pay is illegal.
• Others may even purposefully misclassify workers to avoid paying time and a half for any extra hours worked.
• It usually means either hours worked in excess of a standard work week or the pay rate for this type of work.
• First, add up the total hours worked for that week for one employee.

Overtime Rate, sometimes known as OT, is the hours you work in addition to the set limit of the 40-hour working week. Anything worked in excess of 40 hours is subject to overtime pay, as dictated by the Fair Labor Standards Act or FLSA. This is a set hourly minimum of at least one and one half times the standard wage.

Am I Exempt As An Administrative Employee?

Access collaboration tools and resources that help champion equality and promote DE&I best practices in the workplace. Brokers We offer a consultative approach that aligns with your business development & client retention strategies. Since over time and overtime are so similar, it can be difficult to remember which is which. Thankfully, there is an easy way to remember overtime vs. over time. Overtime can also refer to a period of extended gameplay in a sporting event—something beyond the usually amount.

In some cases, hourly employees receive a non-discretionary, flat-sum bonus. (Non-discretionary bonuses reward time, skill, or they can serve as an incentive to stay in the job). These bonuses would get divided by the non-overtime hours worked and added to the hourly wage to compute the regular rate of pay. It’s important to keep an accurate record of the regular and overtime hours worked by employees in case of an audit. Any time an employee is “on duty,” that hour counts toward the 40 total hours allowed at regular pay.

Time And A Half For Salaried Workers

You will not be entitled to receive liquidated damages if your employer can prove that it acted in good faith. A common scenario that happens could involve you being asked to clock out and continue working.

Employees who are exempt from overtime laws usually have a lot of responsibility within a company and have significant input into how that company is run. Overtime hours means the time an employee works more than 40 hours per work week.

I Am A Domestic Worker Am I Eligible For Overtime?

Start by multiplying the hours worked by each of the pay rates. Add the sums to get total compensation and divide this number by the hours worked to get the regular rate. From overtime and bonuses to paying and filing taxes, payroll can be a hassle.

This is not intended as legal advice; for more information, please click here. Time & AttendanceIntegrated time and attendance tracking, PTO request and accrual management, scheduling and reporting. Download our free e-book,7 most frequent HR mistakes and how to avoid them, to sidestep the most common HR issues and start mastering the tactics you need to run your business.

Most employees must receive overtime pay for all hours worked above 40 in a workweek. The overtime laws are highly technical and we can help apply the law to your special situation.

• One way to do it is to divide their weekly pay by the number of hours they work in a week.
• Overtime pay for salaried employees can seem tricky to calculate, but it’s actually fairly simple.
• This includes if employees are required to be at a certain location to begin work or remain at the place of business to perform services.
• An employee is entitled to overtime pay in the first week that he works more than 40 hours.
• Sometimes workers put in extra hours in a workday as well as extra days in a workweek.

We realize that dental professionals deal with plenty when it comes to employees. One major issue is payroll, and one of the most confusing and time-consuming components of payroll is overtime. There are many other ways you can make your employees happy without exposing yourself to liabilities and problems with the Department of Labor. Your leadership team needs to ensure that a clear and concise policy is in place outlining the attendance expectations of their employees.

How Can I Comply With The Flsa Overtime Requirements?

For residential (live-in) employees, overtime hours start after they work 44 hours in a workweek. Start by calculating your current overtime costs per week or month.

Being able to offer time off and weekly scheduling flexibility to allow an employee to make up time for unexpected short absences gives employees the ability balance their work and personal life. Each of these points needs to be addressed in writing and should be presented to current employees as well as new hires during onboarding. Employees should be directed to ask questions about comp time in advance.

An employee is exempt from overtime law if they are earning a guaranteed monthly compensation of $2,000 or more. Daily overtime must be paid for those who work over eight hours a day.

Track Work Hours Better With Gps Construction Time Tracking Software

This is because all work-related payments must be taken into account when calculating an employee’s correct regular rate of pay. As a result, an employee’s “regular rate” is always equal to or greater than his or her hourly rate of pay. There are various types of payments that employers are required to include when computing the regular rate of pay for all employees, both hourly and salaried. But the employer would still have to pay you overtime if you worked over 40 hours a week. If you have questions about overtime and you work in a unionized workplace, you can usually get advice from your union about how overtime works in your workplace.

New York Laws also include overtime hours for farmworkers who are entitled to overtime for all hours worked above 60 in a workweek. For the most part, the New York State Labor Law follows the same overtime regulations outlined in the FLSA.

What Counts As Overtime?

To be an exempt employee under any of these categories under California law you must earn twice the minimum wage for full-time work. If you make less than the amount listed here, you are not exempt and overtime laws will apply to you. Overtime laws and some other wage and workplace protections, like meal period and rest break laws, do not apply to certain types of employees. Those employees are known as “exempt,” and will not receive overtime pay, even if they work more than eight hours a day or more than forty hours a week.

Where the federal and state laws have different standards, the higher of the two standards applies. If you are unsure about whether a particular employment situation is covered by the FLSA, you should review theFLSA Coverage and Employment Status Advisor. One particular exemption, FLSA section 13, exempts from both minimum wage and overtime pay protections bona fide executive, administrative, professional and outside sales employees.

You are not exempt just because you are paid a weekly salary. If you are not otherwise exempt under the FLSA, your employer must convert your weekly salary to an hourly rate and pay you time and a half for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours. All employees are entitled to overtime pay unless they fall into a specific exemption that excludes them from receiving overtime pay.

Author: Justin D Smith