Overtime+wages+more overtime=brainfart
July 6, 2011 4:30 AM Subscribe
Please help me work out this wages/payroll problem.
There are the following conditions:
1] I get paid normal rate for the first 39 hours I work in a given week.
2] I get paid time-and-a-half for working on a Sunday.
3] I get paid time-and-a-half for any hours over 39 that I work in a week.
Last week, I worked a total of 41 hours, including 4 Sunday hours (time-and-a-half rate). I can only be paid 39 hours in a given week (Sun to Sat), but I can carry over hours to a week when I've not reached the limit. Any premium payments, such as paid time-and-a-half are not put through as a special rate, but are "totalled up". For example, working 4 hours on a Sunday will go through the payroll software as 6 hours.
I think that doing the following will ensure I'm paid correctly:
Week 1: put through 39 hours.
Week 2: put through hours worked that week, plus an extra 2 hours for Sunday paid time-and-a-half + an extra 3 hours for the 2 hours I worked over the overtime limit.
I think I should be getting 41 hours at normal rate, plus an extra 3 to account for the premium payments for Sunday and overtime.
Is this correct? Have I missed anything?
There are the following conditions:
1] I get paid normal rate for the first 39 hours I work in a given week.
2] I get paid time-and-a-half for working on a Sunday.
3] I get paid time-and-a-half for any hours over 39 that I work in a week.
Last week, I worked a total of 41 hours, including 4 Sunday hours (time-and-a-half rate). I can only be paid 39 hours in a given week (Sun to Sat), but I can carry over hours to a week when I've not reached the limit. Any premium payments, such as paid time-and-a-half are not put through as a special rate, but are "totalled up". For example, working 4 hours on a Sunday will go through the payroll software as 6 hours.
I think that doing the following will ensure I'm paid correctly:
Week 1: put through 39 hours.
Week 2: put through hours worked that week, plus an extra 2 hours for Sunday paid time-and-a-half + an extra 3 hours for the 2 hours I worked over the overtime limit.
I think I should be getting 41 hours at normal rate, plus an extra 3 to account for the premium payments for Sunday and overtime.
Is this correct? Have I missed anything?
(User is not in the US.)
You worked 37 regular hours and 4 Sunday hours, right? Since the Sunday time calculates to 6 regular hours, you are owed 37 + 6 = 43 hours. You would put in for your 39 this week, and carry over 4 hours to next week.
posted by gjc at 5:36 AM on July 6, 2011
You worked 37 regular hours and 4 Sunday hours, right? Since the Sunday time calculates to 6 regular hours, you are owed 37 + 6 = 43 hours. You would put in for your 39 this week, and carry over 4 hours to next week.
posted by gjc at 5:36 AM on July 6, 2011
The answer to your question depends on how the situation of premium pay for overtime and Sunday works when both conditions are in effect. If it is the case that you get double pay for those particular hours then your proposed accounting looks accurate. If you get time and a half for Sunday or overtime, but not double pay when you work both over 39 hours and on Sunday, then you are over charging by one hour.
posted by Lame_username at 6:52 AM on July 6, 2011
posted by Lame_username at 6:52 AM on July 6, 2011
gjc's solution (an extra 4 hours) is assuming you don't get double premium and your solution (an extra 5 hours) assumes you do get double premium.
posted by Lame_username at 6:53 AM on July 6, 2011
posted by Lame_username at 6:53 AM on July 6, 2011
Your math looks right to me. You get 41 hours, plus 2 extra for Sunday and 1 extra for overtime - 44 total, 5 of them carried over.
posted by songs about trains at 8:50 AM on July 6, 2011
posted by songs about trains at 8:50 AM on July 6, 2011
Response by poster: To clarify a couple of points:
I don't get paid until the end of the following month for the hours I worked all through the previous month. It makes no difference if payroll goes through in week 1 or week 4, because I will be paid for weeks 1-4 at the end of the next month. If I was paid at the end of the week, then I can see how this would be affected, but I don't think it should if it all lveles out over the month. Maybe I'm missing something?
I don't lose hours because of this. I really wish I was working 39 hours every week, but usually it's between 15-20 hours. I'm contracted to work 15 hours per week, where the week in question was a special occasion, as it were. So, if I work 41 hours one week and 15 the next, there is plenty of "space" to add in the hours from the previous week. I get the same amount of money in my payslip whether it goes through in week 1 or week 4. It's very rare that I get anywhere near the 39 hour limit (I think it's happened twice in nearly 4 years).
Regarding Sundays, I don't get time-and-a-half plus time-and-a-half. I only get it once, sadly. However, those 4 Sunday hours will count towards the 39 hour limit. The extra two will not, as they're not hours worked. I should get an extra 2 hours for Sunday and an extra hour for the two overtime hours I worked. The extra two Sunday premium hours won't affect the overtime hours at all.
I hope this clears things up (and doesn't confuse people even more).
posted by Solomon at 10:07 AM on July 6, 2011
I don't get paid until the end of the following month for the hours I worked all through the previous month. It makes no difference if payroll goes through in week 1 or week 4, because I will be paid for weeks 1-4 at the end of the next month. If I was paid at the end of the week, then I can see how this would be affected, but I don't think it should if it all lveles out over the month. Maybe I'm missing something?
I don't lose hours because of this. I really wish I was working 39 hours every week, but usually it's between 15-20 hours. I'm contracted to work 15 hours per week, where the week in question was a special occasion, as it were. So, if I work 41 hours one week and 15 the next, there is plenty of "space" to add in the hours from the previous week. I get the same amount of money in my payslip whether it goes through in week 1 or week 4. It's very rare that I get anywhere near the 39 hour limit (I think it's happened twice in nearly 4 years).
Regarding Sundays, I don't get time-and-a-half plus time-and-a-half. I only get it once, sadly. However, those 4 Sunday hours will count towards the 39 hour limit. The extra two will not, as they're not hours worked. I should get an extra 2 hours for Sunday and an extra hour for the two overtime hours I worked. The extra two Sunday premium hours won't affect the overtime hours at all.
I hope this clears things up (and doesn't confuse people even more).
posted by Solomon at 10:07 AM on July 6, 2011
With the new information you provided, I think it comes down to whether Sunday was the last day of the period or not. For instance, I get paid weekly and the period ends on Sunday.
In that case, if Sunday is the last day of the period, then before you went to work on Sunday you would have had 37 hours. Then you go to work Sunday, and work 4 hours, bringing the total to 41. But because the Sunday hours are the overtime hours, and you don't get double, it would just be 37 regular hours plus 4 Sunday hours (= 6 regular hours), for a total of 43 hours pay.
However, if Sunday was not the last day of the period, let's say the period ends on Saturday, meaning the Sunday hours were the first hours you worked that period. In that case, you work your 4 Sunday hours (6 regular hours) then work the rest of your week, and at some point during the week you hit 39 hours, after which you get paid overtime. In this scenario, you get 4 Sunday hours (= 6 regular hours), plus 35 regular hours, then you hit the limit and then your last 2 hours are overtime (= 3 regular) for a total of 44 hours.
To me, the former scenario makes more sense but it may just be confirmation bias. Hopefully someone else will chime in.
posted by slicesoftree at 12:21 PM on July 6, 2011
In that case, if Sunday is the last day of the period, then before you went to work on Sunday you would have had 37 hours. Then you go to work Sunday, and work 4 hours, bringing the total to 41. But because the Sunday hours are the overtime hours, and you don't get double, it would just be 37 regular hours plus 4 Sunday hours (= 6 regular hours), for a total of 43 hours pay.
However, if Sunday was not the last day of the period, let's say the period ends on Saturday, meaning the Sunday hours were the first hours you worked that period. In that case, you work your 4 Sunday hours (6 regular hours) then work the rest of your week, and at some point during the week you hit 39 hours, after which you get paid overtime. In this scenario, you get 4 Sunday hours (= 6 regular hours), plus 35 regular hours, then you hit the limit and then your last 2 hours are overtime (= 3 regular) for a total of 44 hours.
To me, the former scenario makes more sense but it may just be confirmation bias. Hopefully someone else will chime in.
posted by slicesoftree at 12:21 PM on July 6, 2011
Response by poster: The second scenario works. Sunday starts the pay period, and the hours are calculated from the start of the week.
posted by Solomon at 12:48 PM on July 6, 2011
posted by Solomon at 12:48 PM on July 6, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
More than that, "premium" payments should be calculated at a special rate, not used to lower the amount of hours you can work next week. Really, they're not paying you overtime at all, as any OT you accrue lowers your eligibility for future work.
Finally, why is it up to you to do your own payroll calculations? Submit your hours. It's your employer's responsibility to accurately figure this out. You can certainly do it yourself to make sure that you're getting paid correctly, but it shouldn't be your job to
This is just wrong six ways from Sunday.
All of that being said, let's pick some numbers. Say you make $10 an hour. That means you make $15 on Sunday and for OT during the week. The question is whether you make $15 or $22.50 for OT on Sunday. I'm going to say the latter, as Sunday wages aren't OT, they're just a differential bonus, so the OT bonus applies to the Sunday wage, not the base wage. So if you worked forty-one hours, including four on Sunday, that means that you worked thirty-seven"regular" hours, two "regular" Sunday hours, and two OT Sunday hours. At $10 for your base wage, that's $445, or forty-four and a half regular hours.
If it were me, I'd go ahead and submit the thirty-nine hours and bank the five and a half extra for later, but I'd definitely get on your boss's case about this situation. If you don't get any love, contact the US Department of Labor's district office in your state. Overtime abuses and jerking around with wages and maximum hours like this are some of the things they tend to take fairly seriously.
posted by valkyryn at 5:33 AM on July 6, 2011