so good I have to share, woohoo but with a weirdness lol

[marty79]

So today was payday and with normal 40hr week my take home is 610ish. Ok
Today my check was $1326.00 WTH OMG OMG (too early for xmas bonus plus I'll be lucky to see couple hundred for a 'bonus' lol)
So before I could ask she says to me, "we are sorry but didn't know we were supposed to pay you overtime so this check is every hour over 40 that you have worked in the last 6 months at the 1.5x the rate" She went on to further explain they weren't aware and surprised to find out and blah blah blah.
Either way it's pretty cool that I got payed for it.
I've had more jobs than I can count that didn't pay me overtime and I'm just not the kind of person to say anything. Most would disagree and tell me otherwise but I'm just not like that. You pay me for each hour I work and if you pay the 1.5x great, if not well that's on you if it ever comes back to bite you in the butt. Which brings me to the next little phase of our chat....she asked me, "did you know it's the law?"
This is where I had to bite my tongue "well yeah I've always known since I was 15 and started working" that was all I said and she just looked at me with a ponder like 'why didn't he say anything' lol.
It was an awesome payday for sure as this is first time in 15yrs that this time of year isn't going to hurt me after what gifts I buy the family and able to pay the bills on time for this month YEII but I don't buy a single bit that they "weren't aware that people don't have to pay overtime to their employees!! Really?? been in business for 20 some years and she's in her late 40s, owner is 63 and yall didn't know??? hhmmmm...
something tells me they were trying to hold out but someone?something? scared them?? maybe before end of year paperwork being turned in? anyone know what would cause them to do this all of a sudden? what are/would be the legalities or repercussions if they didn't and could they even get caught/in trouble without the employee (me) saying anything?

 

[UTfball68]

Well there’s the obvious exempt vs non-exempt side of things. Salaried (exempt) employees aren’t entitled to OT pay if over $23.6k. Beyond that maybe playing fast and loose with the definition of ‘exempt’ if you’ve ever had job duties that are congruent with exempt duties. Not sure all the jobs you’ve had, but not all jobs are FSLA protected. And lastly, if OT is unauthorized AND legitimately unknown, the employer has a valid defense not to pay it...meaning no one has been told to work OT, everyone leaves...and for whatever reason you decide to stay and work on something with no approval or oversight.

 

[palmetto zuk]

 

[junkxj]

That's awesome you got a good pay day you didnt expect,

But I cant imagine having a job that I didn't know if I would be payed overtime, and knowing exactly what my check should be every pay period.........

 

[marty79]

That's awesome you got a good pay day you didnt expect,

But I cant imagine having a job that I didn't know if I would be payed overtime, and knowing exactly what my check should be every pay period.........

It was a blessing for sure. If it's a big company/franchise/ "legit" business OF COURSE I expect and have been payed overtime always. I guess with smaller business like this guy I don't have much expectations lol. I've chose to stick with this job not for the money, obviously, or the growth (none) but because of my freedom of schedule and come and go as I want which frees me up to leave and go do side work making better money or just take a day off when I want to do my stuff and that is something I've finally come to terms with that it's "Priceless" just can't put a price on that kind of freedom, which I do desire. I realize it's a cut in pay to have this job but it's the closest I can get to working for myself and once I get a garage established, I can accept more work on my own and still do his little work rather than dragging out 40hrs (boy that is a job in itself)

 

[a_kelley]

You can exempt out of overtime pay.. but it's a separate form that you have to sign. If not, one phone call, and they get lots of questions and an audit by the NC labor board. That's a head ache no business wants or needs. Fines plus they have to pay Everyone back wages.

 

[rodney eppes]

Your description of the way your allowed to work, sounds more like a contract or sub worker. Maybe someone in payroll was thing that, before someone corrected it. Or, maybe they were doing everyone that way, & someone reported them.
Whatever, I'd say, You got Lucky! Happy Holiday's!

 

[RenegadeT]

That same thing happened to me back way back in the late 80s. We had to clock in with old school time cards punched by the clock. Some disgruntled employee complained to the state board of labor about something, causing an audit. So I ended up with a bonus check for each 0.1 hrs (6 mins) x 1.5 I had recorded. I think we had been getting paid the extra OT for real extra after hours and Saturdays, but weren’t getting the little bit if we showed up before start time. After that, we weren’t allowed to, clock in until exactly 7am, had to line up and wait, and/or just tighten up our arrival time.

 

[RatLabGuy]

Well there’s the obvious exempt vs non-exempt side of things. Salaried (exempt) employees aren’t entitled to OT pay if over $23.6k. Beyond that maybe playing fast and loose with the definition of ‘exempt’ if you’ve ever had job duties that are congruent with exempt duties. Not sure all the jobs you’ve had, but not all jobs are FSLA protected. And lastly, if OT is unauthorized AND legitimately unknown, the employer has a valid defense not to pay it...meaning no one has been told to work OT, everyone leaves...and for whatever reason you decide to stay and work on something with no approval or oversight.

FYI, for Fed employees there is also this strange classification they also call "exempt" where if you work overtime (meaning >80 hrs per 2 weeks pay period) the pay rate is only 1x and not 1.5x. I had never heard of this before my current job, but now have the dubious distinction of being in it.
I believe it is either automatic over a certain annual salary, or maybe for a distinct class of positions, not sure.

I learned this when I volunteered to be part of the snow removal crew for our building. One of those things were it's nobody's job, but somebody needs to do it, requires coming in super early when it snows and shovel and salt the sidewalks. So to get volunteers the Director approved paying people overtime, outside of the normal work hours.
I figured, hell yeah, for 1.5x my pay rate I'll be the worlds most overpaid, overeducated snow shoveller!
When I got my first paycheck with the overtime on it I was surprised by the 1x rate and asked about it, and then learned the hard way I was in this unusual class.

... after doing it about 2 seasons I eventually said fuckit I'd rather sleep in when it snows, some younger guys did it awhile, and now it's contractors, lol....

 

[UTfball68]

FYI, for Fed employees there is also this strange classification they also call "exempt" where if you work overtime (meaning >80 hrs per 2 weeks pay period) the pay rate is only 1x and not 1.5x. I had never heard of this before my current job, but now have the dubious distinction of being in it.
I believe it is either automatic over a certain annual salary, or maybe for a distinct class of positions, not sure.

I learned this when I volunteered to be part of the snow removal crew for our building. One of those things were it's nobody's job, but somebody needs to do it, requires coming in super early when it snows and shovel and salt the sidewalks. So to get volunteers the Director approved paying people overtime, outside of the normal work hours.
I figured, hell yeah, for 1.5x my pay rate I'll be the worlds most overpaid, overeducated snow shoveller!
When I got my first paycheck with the overtime on it I was surprised by the 1x rate and asked about it, and then learned the hard way I was in this unusual class.

... after doing it about 2 seasons I eventually said fuckit I'd rather sleep in when it snows, some younger guys did it awhile, and now it's contractors, lol....

I actually had heard of that, but didn’t know the application. It was earlier on in my finance days, so didn’t care much. But something along the lines of we did government work, so had to comply with government standards. We had exempt, non-exempt and salary non-exempt...which was what you described. Certain roles got their base salary regardless, then got whatever that converted to as an hourly rate when x number of hours had been reached. It primarily applied to admin assistants, line leads and whatever other mini type supervisor roles there were or ‘head of something’ with no subordinates.