OT for Non-Exempt working two assignments

yakley

EE works in Maintenance Dept 40 hour/wk - works 6 hours over in a dept that pays less than the regular dept. Those 6 hours can occur as 3 hours on the same day he works 8 hrs in his regular dept or may occur on a weekend..
Can we pay 1 1/2 OT rate of the dept in which he was working put him over 40 a week?
If over 8 in a day, OT rate for the excess?
Weighted average?
We have the "hours worked" rule in place so holidays, PTO, would not be an issue.

What are the options as per FLSA and the wage/hour division?

Tks

C Wilson

You may pay a weighted average for all hours worked over 40 as long as the work in each department is substaintaly different. FSLA has no requirements to pay overtime for working more than eight hours in a day.

We decided to pay overtime at the higher rate just to save the hassle of calculating the weighted average because we had several people working two departments at different rates. Good luck.

stilldazed

You do have two options, the weighted average or 1 1/2 times the higher rate for the hours over 40 in the week. You do not have the option to pay 1 1/2 times the lower rate.

Some employers choose to pay OT for hours over 8 in a single day, but many that do so are just being generous. Unless you are a hospital or nursing home and paying on the approved 8 & 80 rule available to those places of business, there is no FLSA requirement to pay OT for work hours that exceed 8 in a single day.

As an example, if your worker works at $10 in the regular job x40 hours in the week and works a different job for 3 hours that pays $7/hour. Your option to pay the OT would be to pay the 3 OT hours at $15/hour or $14.69/hour as the weighted average:
((40 x $10 = $100) + (3 x $7 = $21))/43 = $9.79/hour x 1.5 = $14.69/hr.

Make sure your OT rate is based on "regular rate of pay," which can be different from hourly rate if any other compensation is offered to your staff.

best wishes