Whatever happened to Overtime Pay?

[Philosoraptor]

I've always been self employed, but have worked in the mainstream in my earlier days, and they used to have a thing called overtime. If you wanted to, you could work more than the 40 hour week and get time and a half. Some bosses demanded it, some employees asked for it.

But my wife has worked in banks and retail for many years and the places where she has worked seem to avoid paying anyone, any overtime. In fact they'll hire more people to do less, and pay them all for their 40 hours.

Does the overtime system still work like it used to back in the sixties? What are the overall statistics and how much has it changed, and how does it affect the economy?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[meegbear]

1. The beauty of salaried employees ...

you get the same pay no matter how many hours over you work.

[napi21]

2. Yes, it's pretty much the same.

My husband is a meat cutter for a large supermarket chain, and their pay week runs Fri to Thur. Each Wed. AM the HR mgr goes to each Dept head with a report of anyone who is less than 8 hours from their 40 for the week. Those Dept heads are charged with sending anyone who COULD have OT home early so there is no one in the store who worked over their 40 hrs.

I think the diff. today is that most companies see OT in a different light than they used to.

I know, in the last co. I worked for, the owner believed that it was cheaper to pay OT to the people you already had (and knew what they were doing) than it was to continually hire and lay off people based on the rise and fall of your needs.

Just a different phylosophy I guess.

[lpbk2713]

3. BushCo sent OT pay offshore along with millions of Americans' jobs.

[alpizzy]

4. I don't have any stats...

but I still get time & a half over 40 hrs.
Not sure if this is just a benefit or if there
are laws in place to guarantee overtime
after a certain number of hours are exceeded.

[BOSSHOG]

5. Wanna fuck with the head of a "conservative?"

Tell him you think overtime should be calculated as anything over 8 hours per day instead of over 40 hours per week.

[ixion]

6. which is how they calculate overtime in Alaska, ironically

just sayin...

[Philosoraptor]

7. splain dis to me bosshog...

I mean, can you be more specific for a brain damaged DUer?

[BOSSHOG]

8. Big companies like Wal-Mart, etc

keep close tabs on payroll. They may hire someone to work fulltime which might include 10 or 12 hour days on weekends or nights, but the employee will never get more then 40 hours a week, thus no overtime pay. Good situation? Bad situation? Might lead to three days off per week? Such a proposal was floeated 30+ years ago and businesses went apeshit over the idea.

[Philosoraptor]

10. walmart, famous for fucking over the serfs.

they make people work overtime for nothing. more and more companies demand more and more for less and less, and then send our jobs to india and taiwan.

[wicket]

9. At my job I was at until last year...

...I had 2 hours of overtime pay built into every shift. At my new job I still get overtime pay, but it's fewer and farther between.

[patcox2]

11. Sometimes depends on whether the company provides benefits.

The rules governing overtime have not changed; Fairpay (DOL Reg. revisions put in place last year) really did nothing, despite the wailing and gnashing of teeth.

But generally, if a company gives good health benefits, its in their interest to make their employees work overtime, because its cheaper to pay fewer employees overtime than to hire more employees and pay their health benefits. But if the company does not provide benefits, its cheaper to hire as amny employees as they need to make sure that noone works overtime.

[DiverDave]

12. I get 20-25 hours of OT a week

comes in handy to pay the 57% increase in the power bills that are starting to show up...

[TreasonousBastard]

13. Technically, nothing's changed, but...

they HATE to pay OT now, and they have ways to get out of it. Paying OT isn't just the pay, but the employers part of payroll taxes, pension contributions, Workmens Comp, liability insurance and all sorts of things based on payroll, so every penny counts

The first trick is to make you an "exempt" employee not subject wage & hour laws. That's supposed to be for management and professionals, but they can stick clerks and other workers in there by simply reclassifying them as "management."

The next way is to simply send people home when they are close to OT. OT can be either over 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week, and they will simply not let you work any more than that. A lot of places have enough people to get the work done if it's spread around so no one puts in extra hours. Some places are happy to let the work pile up for a while rather than pay extra to get it done.

They will pull mandatory lunch and breaks off of your time. Come in at 8 and leave at 5 and you worked less than 8 hours because they took out a 45 minute lunch and two 15 minute breaks from your time.

And, after all these and other tricks haven't reduced payroll enough, there's always temp agencies to work the heavy periods. Temp agencies charge a lot, but there's no additonal obligation at all toward the employees with them, so it still comes out a little cheaper than hiring or paying OT.

Wanna see some serious OT? Some unions still have contracts that pay incredible money. Longshoreman's comes to mind where you can get gobs of triple pay. And PBA contracts are always good for OT.

[likesmountains 52]

14. I get paid OT for anything over 12/day , and over 40/week...if I get

called in on my day off I get double time...