Non-Exempt Hourly Vs. Salary

ttimms

Good Afternoon!!

I would like to find out if it is possible to pay an hourly wage to our employees based on precalculated hours... (168/month; 86.66/Semi monthly; 40/wk) no matter how many hours were in the pay period. So, if one semi-monthly pay period totaled 96 hours and the next 80, can we pay them 86.66 across the board with overtime paid if worked more than 40/wk?

We are in Washington.

Thank you!

:help:

Sharon McKnight SPHR

Your first post! Welcome to the Forum. :welcome:

The Fair Labor Standards Act doesn't allow employers to average the hours an employee works over two or more weeks, even within the same pay period. You can find information about this topic at www.hrlaws.com on these pages:

http://www.hrlaws.com/overtime-issues-for-employers
http://www.hrlaws.com/man/wh/2012/ch5_intro
http://www.hrlaws.com/man/wh/2012/what_is_the_flsa_workweek
http://www.hrlaws.com/man/wh/2012/compensatory_time



With that said, salaried nonexempt is an employee type that is paid on a salaried basis but receives overtime for any ours worked over 40 in a given workweek. For example, if a salaried nonexempt employee is paid bi-weekly at $10 per hour and works 43 hours in the first week of the pay period and 38 hours in the second week of the pay period, he/she would receive $445 for the first week and $400 for the second week for a total of $845. The employee's hours could not be averaged over the two week period to be 41.5 hours for each workweek which would result in $815 paid to the employee. Being salaried means the employee receives full pay even if he/she works less than 40 hours in a workweek.

This is similar to what you describe but I urge you to research all the issues before making a change in the way your hourly employees are paid. Also, you might consider asking the DOL to review your pay plan for compliance.

Hope this helps.

Sharon