my coworkers and I are trying to figure something out

we are paid 2 rates for travel and work and our company came out with a new policy for overtime

here is the policy from our handbook:

Quote :

" 5. In the situation of an employee who has two different rates of pay for travel and work their overtime will be calculated using the weighted average method of computing. Example of the weighted average method: An employee works 40 regular and 4.5 overtime hours at $10 per hour for clerical work at the office. During the same workweek, she also works eight hours at $8 per hour answering the phone at her house, resulting in 52.5 total hours worked at both jobs during the workweek. Using the weighted average method, you would take her earnings from the clerical job (44.5 hours at $10/hour, or $445.00) plus her earnings from answering the phone at home (8 hours at $8/hour, or $64.00), to get a total of $509.00. You then divide the total earnings by the total hours ($509.00 / 52.5) to arrive at the weighted average regular rate of $9.70 per hour. The total earnings of $509.00 represent the straight-time pay she has earned for the 52.5 hours, i.e., she has already been paid straight time for those hours, and so she only needs half-time for the 12.5 overtime hours to bring her up to the required time and a half. Half-time for the weighted regular rate is $4.85/hour, so multiply that times the 12.5 overtime hours and add it to the straight-time pay to get the total pay for the workweek. That would be $4.85 times 12.5, or $60.63, and that added to $509.00 equals $569.63, the total pay including overtime. The weighted average times the number of hours worked equals the total straight-time earnings for the workweek, and an employee only needs to be paid the straight time once. Any time you use an overtime calculation method that depends upon a total straight time figure, the overtime hours will be paid at "half time", instead of time and a half. "

we're debating on whether they can do this or not since some weeks our higher rate is a much higher percentage of our straight time pay thus our overtime would be significantly reduced and we ALMOST ALWAYS work overtime, i think i average 60 hrs/week

1/15/2008 11:40:00 AM

yep they can do this.

1/15/2008 11:50:44 AM

This actually looks unusually fair for what businesses normally do.

1/15/2008 11:56:37 AM

Quote :

"yep they can do this."

1/15/2008 12:00:52 PM

well just for reference i was on the side that they can do this, and sure enough some googling brought me to Allen v. Board of Public Education for Bibb Country which says so i think

now we are arguing over whether that ruling applies to us, lol

1/15/2008 12:01:55 PM

i find myself wondering why they chose a gender for the employee in their example. They start off gender neutral.

"An employee works..."

then they mention the job. "...clerical work..."

then they assign the gender ...she also works..."

1/15/2008 12:03:59 PM

Quote :

"well just for reference i was on the side that they can do this, and sure enough some googling brought me to Allen v. Board of Public Education for Bibb Country which says so i think now we are arguing over whether that ruling applies to us, lol"

a supreme court ruling applies to everyone

1/15/2008 12:05:19 PM

i didnt say i was arguing with my fellow rocket scientists

1/15/2008 12:10:51 PM

Quote :

"we're debating on whether they can do this or not since some weeks our higher rate is a much higher percentage of our straight time pay thus our overtime would be significantly reduced "

if you work a higher percentage at the higher rate, your overtime pay will be closer to the higher amount.

how were you paid overtime before?

1/15/2008 12:37:16 PM

i think we were paid say, if i worked 25 hours of travel and 20 hours of regular pay, i would only get time and a half for the 5 hours at that travel rate, whereas now it would actually get bumped up to the weighted average since travel is smaller

but it works both ways, now if i work 20 hours of travel and 25 hours of regular pay, the weighted average brings my overtime down considerably (travel pay is appx. 60% of regular pay)

a looooong time ago they tell me they used to not get paid overtime unless they went over 40 hours not combined, but that was before my time of employment and i wouldnt have stood for that, lol

1/15/2008 1:39:07 PM

Sounds like they were being overly generous before.

1/15/2008 1:41:14 PM

personally id rather get 2 checks...just pay me for the work i did, don't try and consolidate it, itll still all get to my bank account

1/15/2008 1:42:45 PM

Quote :

"i think we were paid"

You don't even know for sure how you were paid before?

1/15/2008 1:52:05 PM

well when i started i rarely worked enough to get overtime, but now that i know the company has no problems just doling it out if we do an 80 hr week i do it all the time

either way, its a step up from my $10/hr grocery job store i had in college so i had no beef with the way pay was/is done

1/15/2008 1:56:34 PM