Expert: Shirley McAllister, CPP, PHR - 10/31/2008

Question
Hi! Our payroll cut off dates are 10th & 25th of each month and get paid on the 15th and 31st, my boss believed that we have an 88 hrs work period and would not pay OT. is this right?  also are we supposed to get our paycheck first thing on the paydate or are we supposed to wait till the end of the day?

Answer
When figuring overtime you do not go by the pay periods. You must go a week at a time. Overtime is paid on any time worked in any one week over 40 hours.

YOu are paid semi-monthly or 24 times a year. There are 52 weeks in a year and if you work 40 hours in a week than there are 2080 work days in a year.  If you divide 2080 by 24 you have 87 hours in the work period. This is true, but it is irrelevant for overtime.

Each week must be looked at. So if you worked two 40 hour weeks and than worked one more day that day would have to be looked at next payperiod by payroll to calculate overtime. This means that if you worked 36 hours in the next 4 days than you would have worked 44 hours in the week and you should be paid 4 hours of overtime on your next payroll check. It will look strange. You would have only 32 hours regular pay and 4 hours overtime as the 8 hours has already been paid for that week on the last paycheck.

Shirley