Paying different rates for different work

Caroliso

We occasionally have situations where we'd consider using an exempt or a non-exempt staff member for work outside their job responsibilities, at a different compensation level. An example is an AA who has illustration skills designing artwork for a publication.

How do others handle this challenge? We've avoided it because of the complications of paying two different rates to one person. And also, can one do this for exempts above and beyond their current work, on an hourly basis if that job we want them to do is a non-exempt job?

Margaret Morford

We had a form that was turned into Payroll for non-exempt workers that listed the higher class job rate and how many hours they spent "working out of classification." It had to be signed by the supervisor for which the work was done. Payroll would pay them those hours at the higher rate. For exempts, I'd just pay them a bonus for the additional work that is not tied to actual hours worked.

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]

Theresa Gegen TX

But with exempts, you need to monitor the amount of non-exempt work they do carefully. Most exemptions only allow a threshold amount of non-exempt work (like 20% or 50% depending on the exemption) -- doing more than that can destroy the employees exempt status. So if it is going to be a regular recurring thing, you may want to think about just hiring a part timer to do it.

Good Luck!