CA SUMMER WORKING HOURS: Overtime Considerations for California Employers
It’s summer and most of us are looking forward to being able to get outside until the sun goes down late in the evening and to that end many employers are sensitive to the desires of their staff trying to develop creative schedules to allow employees to take advantage of the longer days. However, no good deed goes unpunished and often times employers who get creative with working hours run afoul of overtime laws. Let’s take an example, Summit Ski Company, specializing in Ski travel vacations, decides that in light of the slowdown in business during the summer months and the active lifestyles of its employees, it’s going to allow employees to get a jump on the weekend by closing Fridays and instead working 10-hour days Mon – Thurs. Under this scenario, since California law requires that any hours in excess of eight in a single day required overtime pay, Summit Ski Company must now pay all non-exempt/hourly employees two hours of overtime at a rate of 1.5X their regular hourly rate Mon – Thurs because the employees are working 10-hour days. In another scenario, Home Sweet Home Cooking Company, a business that provides ready-to-eat meals delivered to homes, decides that during the months of June, July and August, it’s going to close for a half day every Friday and that any non-exempt/hourly employee who wants to get paid for 40 hours instead of 36 is going to have to do make-up time during that same week on some other day. Once again, in this situation, if an employee decides that it’s going to add an hour a day on each of Mon – Thurs thereby creating four 9-hour workdays, Home Sweet Home Cooking Company is going to owe these employees one hour of overtime pay at 1.5X their regular hourly rate for each of those 4 hours worked. In order for hours to be considered make-up time, it must be the employee who voluntarily decides to work less hours in a particular week and to instead work extra hours on other days during the same week so as not to lose any income for that pay period. When the employer forces the employee to either lose the hours or work more than eight in a day in order to get his or her regular pay, overtime will be required for those extra hours. In a final scenario, Flush Away, a residential plumbing business, allows its employees during the months of June, July and August, to opt to work only four hours on Friday and leave early. Further, employees who take the Company up on its offer may choose to work extra hours Mon – Thurs of the same week so not to lose any pay for that week. The company labels such extra hours as make-up time and has a written policy that explains the make-up time policy. In this case, since the choice is solely up to the employee as to whether or not he or she works those four hours on Friday or chooses to either lose the pay or make them up earlier in the week, the onus is on the employee and the classification of the hours as make-up time is appropriate. When those extra hours are in fact worked no overtime is due the employee.