Delaying OT Pay at Employee's Request

Con_Sue

Hourly employee is requesting that we withhold paying him his overtime earnings until a later date "as a means of saving" for his daughter's education. For the record, he's in the midst of a divorce. I believe wages are due and must be paid in the period in which they are earned . . . unfortunately I can't locate this in writing. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

jcacciola

I believe you are correct. The closest thing I can find in the FLSA language is this:

FOr Private Employers:

If an employee works overtime in a workweek which falls at the beginning of a pay period, then the employee can take time off with pay in a workweek later the same pay period. If an employee cannot use all of the accrued comp time by the end of the pay period, then the employee must be paid for the comp time in the paycheck for that pay period.

Since an employee can't carry forward comp time, in the private sector, it seems logical he can't carry forward overtime pay due either.

If your employee wants the money saved for his child's college, he should open a savings account. It's not your responsibility to be his "bank."

If you want to be sure you can't pay OT later, as he requested, call the Wage and Hour Division of DOL.

Good luck.

Margaret Morford

Also, you don't want to become part of a scheme to defraud the court in a divorce case. The person above is right. Tell him to open an account.

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