36-hour shifts, 80-hour weeks: Workers are being burned out by overtime

So, if your employee is both salaried and classified as exempt, they are not entitled to overtime pay. But there are situations where salaried employees would be eligible for overtime pay—and as an employer, it’s important to understand the relevant overtime rules and when you need to be paying for overtime hours. Unless specifically exempted, employees covered by the Act must receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay. The Act does not require overtime pay for work on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, or regular days of rest, as such. Overtime pay calculations can differ based on an employee’s pay structure, such as hourly, salaried, or commission-based.

The Labor Department has proposed raising the threshold to $55,068, or $1,059 weekly. So, if an employee’s salary is above $35,568 per year (or $684 per week) and their job duties qualify for an overtime exemption, then you could classify that employee as exempt—and they wouldn’t be entitled to overtime pay. But if they don’t meet both criteria, they’d qualify as nonexempt and be eligible for overtime pay. The regular rate includes all remuneration for employment except certain payments excluded by the Act itself.

Overtime wages for a salary covering all worked hours

Another member was recently disciplined for refusing to work through his scheduled days off on short notice so he could care for a family member having health issues, Ballew said. Workers say they feel like they are caught in a perpetual cycle where the required overtime is causing people to leave their jobs, exacerbating the staffing shortages and requiring even more overtime. The Virginia Beach Fire Department said in a statement that fire departments nationwide have been seeing a lack of interest in the profession wage earners are eligible for overtime after 40 hours per week worked. for various reasons, including health risks, the long hours required, and a relatively low salary compared to other jobs. Employers say requiring overtime is a necessity — especially in health and safety positions with minimum staffing requirements — because they are unable to find enough workers to staff the shifts. This Halloween, eight Boston EMTs were mandated to work the overnight shift at the last minute, some of whom were parents who had planned to take their kids trick-or-treating that evening, said Mutter.

The Biden administration calls for automatically raising the overtime threshold every three years, to keep pace with rising wages. In the waning days of the Obama administration, the Labor Department ordered a similar increase, boosting the threshold from $23,660 to $47,476. The Trump administration then crafted its own rule, using the $35,000 threshold that’s in place today.

The Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor: 1-866-4-US-WAGE (1-866-487-

With any questions regarding the proper classification of your
employees for overtime purposes. The contents of this document do not have the force and effect of law and are not meant to bind the public in any way. This document is intended only to provide clarity to the public regarding existing requirements under the law or agency policies. “When Is Overtime Due?”
Information about overtime from the elaws FLSA Advisor. But research has shown that many companies illegally deny workers overtime by raising their salaries just above the overtime cutoff and simply labeling them managers, even if they do little managerial work. A federal judge struck down that proposal before it could take effect after business groups and 21 states sued to stop it, agreeing with them that the Labor Department exceeded its authority and set the threshold too high.

These variations necessitate both employers and employees to understand their local regulations and how they may impact their overtime pay calculations. An employee’s workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour periods. Currently, eligible employees are eligible for overtime pay if they earn less than $35,308 a year.

The “Highly-Compensated Employee” Exemption.

It doesn’t matter if that marketing manager works 34 hours one week, 42 hours the next, 38 hours the following week, and 55 hours the final week of the month/pay period. Because they’re exempt, salaried employees, you would pay them their $1000/week salary for all four pay periods, regardless of the number of hours worked—and no overtime pay is required. For covered, nonexempt employees, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires overtime pay (PDF) to be at least one and one-half times an employee’s regular rate of pay after 40 hours of work in a workweek. Some exceptions apply under special circumstances to police and firefighters and to employees of hospitals and nursing homes. These standards apply to full-time and part-time workers in the private sector and in federal, state, and local governments.

• Keep in mind that, under the FLSA, the overtime exemptions, minimum salary threshold, and duties tests only apply to white-collar jobs—and not blue-collar workers or police officers, firefighters, or first responders.
• So, for any hours that employee works in excess of 40 in a workweek, they’d be paid $26.25 per hour.
• Staffing shortages have plagued the economy since the start of the pandemic, with many leaving the workforce to retire or take over child care needs, while others have switched professions, often to careers with better work-life balance or higher salaries.
• All employers subject to the FLSA’s minimum wage provisions should display and maintain a visible notice outlining the Act in all of their establishments.
• Usually the overtime rate is time-and-a-half, so multiply the regular hourly rate by 1.5.

While the 40-hour workweek is the standard threshold for determining when overtime pay begins, some states have additional regulations that can affect overtime calculations. For instance, in certain states, daily overtime pay may be mandated if an employee exceeds eight hours within a 24-hour period. The first method is used when an employee receives a salary that covers a fixed number of worked hours.

The second method is used when an employee receives a salary that covers all worked hours. Millions of salaried workers would be newly eligible for overtime pay under a proposal unveiled by the Biden administration Wednesday, but the draft rule is likely to face pushback from business groups that blocked a similar effort under former President Obama. Most employees have the right to be paid at least the federal minimum wage ($7.25) for all hours worked regardless of whether you are paid by the hour, the day, or at a piece rate. Some state laws and local laws provide greater employee protections; employees are entitled to the highest of the local, state, or federal minimum wage that applies to them. However, it’s important to remember that exempt salaried employees are paid the same amount regardless of how much they work—and, as an employer, you don’t want to abuse that.