Overtime question

Fellhand

I recently changed jobs and during the last two weeks at my old job I worked over forty hours each week. The weeks divided my pay periods, so my least check was correct for working 43 hours and recieving 3 hours over time.
The week before I worked 46 hours, but that Monday was Labor Day. Every employee gets it off and gets credited for a 'day' of work. My days were 7.5 hours. Since I worked over, they just subtracted the hours I would have had for Labor Day insted of giving me over time. Is this correct or are they screwing me out of wages?

whuppins

I'm not sure anyone can give you an accurate answer except the HR department of your previous job. Every workplace has its own set (or multiple sets) of rules regarding how holiday hours are tabulated and how overtime is calculated. It's not something that seems outright unlawful, so you'll probably just have to clarify the overtime policies with the old HR department.

Richard_Dastardly

I doubt your getting screwed. It wouldn't make sense to get paid overtime when you technically didn't work a day.

Just be glad they're not docking your ETO for holidays. That's what my employer does... the bastards.

Fellhand

whuppins wrote: »

I'm not sure anyone can give you an accurate answer except the HR department of your previous job. Every workplace has its own set (or multiple sets) of rules regarding how holiday hours are tabulated and how overtime is calculated. It's not something that seems outright unlawful, so you'll probably just have to clarify the overtime policies with the old HR department.

I called and asked them and was told that I had to physically work more than 40 hours to qualify for overtime. I checked with my state's (VT) and the Federal laws regarding holiday pay and wasn't able to come to a solid conclussion. It just overall seems like a case of everyone else getting something and me just getting boned.

Feral

Fellhand wrote: »

I recently changed jobs and during the last two weeks at my old job I worked over forty hours each week. The weeks divided my pay periods, so my least check was correct for working 43 hours and recieving 3 hours over time.
The week before I worked 46 hours, but that Monday was Labor Day. Every employee gets it off and gets credited for a 'day' of work. My days were 7.5 hours. Since I worked over, they just subtracted the hours I would have had for Labor Day insted of giving me over time. Is this correct or are they screwing me out of wages?

I don't understand your question or what you mean by "they just subtracted the hours."

So you worked 46 hours during a particular week. In addition to the 46 hours you actually worked, you also had a paid holiday. Is that right?

BTW, how did you manage 46 hours of work, plus a paid holiday, if your days were 7.5 hours long?

Fellhand wrote: »

whuppins wrote: »

I'm not sure anyone can give you an accurate answer except the HR department of your previous job. Every workplace has its own set (or multiple sets) of rules regarding how holiday hours are tabulated and how overtime is calculated. It's not something that seems outright unlawful, so you'll probably just have to clarify the overtime policies with the old HR department.

I called and asked them and was told that I had to physically work more than 40 hours to qualify for overtime. I checked with my state's (VT) and the Federal laws regarding holiday pay and wasn't able to come to a solid conclussion. It just overall seems like a case of everyone else getting something and me just getting boned.

You do have to physically work more than 40 hours to qualify for overtime. Do you think you get overtime pay for a holiday or something? That's silly.

Fireflash

It's not impossible that this is how things should be, depending on labour laws where you live.

Where I work they used to count the holiday hours towards our worked hours for the week.

For example if I had a week with 1 holiday and I came in to work and did 8 hours during the holiday my pay would look something like: 32 regular hours for time worked + 8 regular hours for holiday + 8 overtime hours for coming in during the holiday.

But sometime last year I guess someone looked up the laws and realized we were getting more money than we legally deserved so they sent us a memo and our holiday policy was changed. Now my pay for the same week as above would instead look like this : 40 regular hours for worked time+ 8 regular hours for the holiday. No overtime pay until we physically go beyong 40 worked hours.

Feral

If you get 8 hours of holiday pay on Monday, and then work 42 hours Tuesday - Friday, you get 2 x 1.5 hours worth of overtime pay, not 10 x 1.5 hours of overtime pay. Overtime is for, y'know, working hard, not for sitting on your ass.

However, you still get the pay for the holiday itself. So in my example, your paycheck would reflect 51 hours of pay. 8 hours holiday pay + 40 hours normal hourly pay + (2 x 1.5) hours overtime pay = 51 hours.

Fellhand

Normally I would work 37.5 hours a week. From the point that I put in my notice I was authorized to work as long as needed to complete the work I had. When I give the 46 hour example, I mean that I had Monday the 1st off and it counted toward 7.5 hours of my work week. I then proceeded to work an additional 38.5 hours that week.

EggyToast

This is how my job is. They stress that you should not take vacation time if you're doing OT, as you get screwed out of the OT pay rate.

So we work 37.5 hours, but you have to go over 40 actual worked hours to get OT pay. So if I worked 47.5 hours, but then took a vacation day or sick day instead of actually working, I would get the 7.5 hours at my normal wage, not OT wage. I'd still get paid for it, since sick/vacation is handled separately, but I wouldn't get OT rate.

Now, if you received credit for Labor Day but you also worked over, then technically they should be paying you equivalent to everyone else -- compensation for Labor Day. Worst case, it should be equivalent to a regular vacation day. Arguably, you may even want to push that -- get an extra day of vacation, or a "comp day," to use as you wish, to make up for the discrepancy. But yes, if you worked a 40 hour week, AND should have received a bonus "day" for a holiday, it sounds like you didn't get the bonus day.

Feral

Fellhand wrote: »

When I give the 46 hour example, I mean that I had Monday the 1st off and it counted toward 7.5 hours of my work week. I then proceeded to work an additional 38.5 hours that week.

Fellhand wrote:

The week before I worked 46 hours, but that Monday was Labor Day.

Yeah, don't confuse hours you worked with holiday hours. You didn't work 46 hours. You got paid for 46 hours (or at least you should have). There's a difference.

Fellhand

Feral wrote: »

Fellhand wrote: »

When I give the 46 hour example, I mean that I had Monday the 1st off and it counted toward 7.5 hours of my work week. I then proceeded to work an additional 38.5 hours that week.

Fellhand wrote:

The week before I worked 46 hours, but that Monday was Labor Day.

Yeah, don't confuse hours you worked with holiday hours. You didn't work 46 hours. You got paid for 46 hours (or at least you should have). There's a difference.

Ok, so then I should have been paid for 46 hours at my normal rate right? The thing is, I don't think they even did that. I'm going to request a copy of my time card so I can check this out and confirm, but I think the only paid me for a 37.5 hour week.

Feral

Fellhand wrote: »

Feral wrote: »

Fellhand wrote: »

When I give the 46 hour example, I mean that I had Monday the 1st off and it counted toward 7.5 hours of my work week. I then proceeded to work an additional 38.5 hours that week.

Fellhand wrote:

The week before I worked 46 hours, but that Monday was Labor Day.

Yeah, don't confuse hours you worked with holiday hours. You didn't work 46 hours. You got paid for 46 hours (or at least you should have). There's a difference.

Ok, so then I should have been paid for 46 hours at my normal rate right? The thing is, I don't think they even did that. I'm going to request a copy of my time card so I can check this out and confirm, but I think the only paid me for a 37.5 hour week.

Well, there's no federal law that says that they have to pay you holiday pay, nor are there such laws in any state that I know of, but IANAL so don't take my word for it.

However, some state laws do require that if they pay you holiday pay, they have to do so consistently - ie, they can't revoke your holiday pay just because you worked extra hours later on in the week.

Whether or not you get holiday pay for Labor Day is between you, your employer, and the state you live in. I suggest reading your employee handbook very, very, very carefully, and then looking up state law on the subject.

Jaded

Simple advice from a Supervisor who does payroll.
Write your hours down in a notepad, so you don't have to go looking for your timecard... things get filed, pepople get lazy... the process can be drawn out or just ignored hoping you'll give up...

Good luck!

Fellhand

Upon looking at the scans of my time cards, and we were paid on a two week period, I physically worked 38.5 hours one week and 36.5 the next week. I didn't recieve any hours for Labor day. I'm going to check out my old contract and the employee handbook, but it just seems wicked dick that EVERY other employee recieved credit for a full day's work and every year for the previous four years I recieved 7.5 hours credit for Labor Day. So other than that it's contacting the VT department of labor and asking them right?

Feral

Fellhand wrote: »

Upon looking at the scans of my time cards, and we were paid on a two week period, I physically worked 38.5 hours one week and 36.5 the next week. I didn't recieve any hours for Labor day. I'm going to check out my old contract and the employee handbook, but it just seems wicked dick that EVERY other employee recieved credit for a full day's work and every year for the previous four years I recieved 7.5 hours credit for Labor Day. So other than that it's contacting the VT department of labor and asking them right?

Yeah basically.