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Posted: 2002-04-09 11:26
Can exempt supervisory employees receive overtime compensation? If so, can it be based on an hourly rate or a per day rate?
pattystl
Joined: Jan 29, 2002 Posts: 278
Posted: 2002-04-09 13:16
Some courts have ruled that extra pay to exempt employees that is calculated based on hours and hourly or daily rate have rendered the employee as non-exempt. Other courts have said it is OK. Same with "comp time".
Actually, exempt employees are meant to work whatever is "necessary" to get the job done.
If you really want to do something special to reward work way over and above the requirements, I'd try to characterize it differently. To be on the safe side, better to characterize any extra pay as a bonus and not tie it to hours. Or give a extra day or two of vacation, or a nice gift certificate or other tangible award or prize. There's been no discrepancies about these. Just don't tie the value of the extra compensation to hours.
Forum Hosts Legal Forum Host
Joined: Dec 20, 2001 Posts: 521
Posted: 2002-04-09 13:21
An employer may choose to pay exempt supervisors compensation for overtime. There are a variety of ways to do this. Indeed, the salary basis test expressly allows for additional compensaion beyond the salary. Courts have found that employers exempt under the FLSA may be paid overtime on any (lawful) basis (e.g., straight time, flat sum, etc.)
LTobio
Joined: Nov 21, 2001 Posts: 16
Posted: 2002-04-09 13:21
You can always pay people more! When I worked in manufacturing, frequently supervisors would have to cover shifts if one called in sick or was on vacation. In those cases, we would figure out what their hourly rate was (salary divided by 2080) and pay straight time during the week and time and a half on the weekends. Some balked that we didn't pay time and a half for hours over eight during the week, but we tried to strike a balance. However, we only paid them extra if they were covering a shift, not if they just stayed late working on a project, since that was part of their job.
Forum Hosts Legal Forum Host
Joined: Dec 20, 2001 Posts: 521
Posted: 2002-04-11 05:34
In my opinion, when establishing a pay plan that calls for "overtime" or "extra" compensation for exempt employees, an employer must keep in mind that there are "exempts" and there are "exempts." I am not talking about what the law defines as exempt - I am talking about the real world. Anyone who has tried to establish pay classifications understands that there are exempt employees, non-exempt employees and employees who seem to be "sort of" exempt and "sort of" non-exempt. With respect to these borderline employees, the manner in which an employer pays them is one of the things that a court will look at in determining whether they are exempt or not in the first place. Thus, if an employer is "sort of" non-exempt and is paid "extra pay" for "extra work" on some hourly basis, even if not at time-and-a-half, then a court might use that as one factor to support their claim that the employer unlawfully failed to pay overtime.
The better practice, some would say, would be to pay exempt employees "extra" pay based on quality of work or results of work and not hours of work.
pattystl
Joined: Jan 29, 2002 Posts: 278
Posted: 2002-04-11 06:31
Dear Hosts:
Count me in the definition of the "some" you referred to at the end of your immediately previous post. It's the safest thing to do.
JonMark
Joined: Sep 21, 2004 Posts: 1
Posted: 2004-09-21 12:46
I work in law enforcement. We have supervisors who are subject to callouts and on-call 24/7. The do not receive any overtime for this. An example would be a recent case where two supervisors were called out. One who was a sergeant was paid time and a half; the lieutenant who worked the same amount of overtime received nothing. I read a recent government posting regarding overtime and as I understood the article, anyone who is subject to callout or required to be on call is to be paid overtime.
Thanks in advance for the feedback.
nork3
Joined: Feb 12, 2002 Posts: 3876
Posted: 2004-09-21 16:46
Not true. An employee who is exempt under the law need not be paid overtime. A lieutenant would fall into a management category and be exempt under FLSA.
DwayneA
Joined: Sep 21, 2006 Posts: 20
Posted: 2006-09-21 20:56
I seem to recall sometime in the early 90s a court case relating to overtime pay for federal civil service managers. The case resulted Civil Service Managers being eligible for overtime pay. The AFGE offered to respresent any manager who felt they were entiteled to the backpay for overtime pay. The employer I work for uses the title manager so employees do not get the O/T pay. We do the same work as subordinates, are not allowed to make the decisions or take the actions of a supervisor. The only benefit we realy get is parking in the managers parking lot and eligible for deferred pay. Managment however gets hours and hours of overtime from us at no cost. Because of overtime several of my subordinates make more money than I do.
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Posted: 2002-04-09 11:26 
