Wisconsin Hours of Work and Overtime Law

Transcription

1 Wisconsin Hours of Wk Overtime Law The state overtime law applies to most Wisconsin employers, including state local units of government but not necessary to each individual wker. Covered wkers, regardless of age, must be paid 1 1/2 times their regular rate of pay f all hours wked in excess of 40 hours a week. The law applies to facties, mercantile (see definition of mercantile) mechanical establishments, restaurants, hotels, motels, rests, beauty parls, retail wholesale stes, laundries, express transptation firms, telegraph offices telephone exchanges. Under the Wisconsin Child Lab regulation, year-old mins may be employed me than 8 hours in a day 40 hours in a week when school is not in session provided that they receive one one half times the regular rate of pay f all hours wked in excess of 10 hours per day 40 hours per week, that they do not wk in excess of 50 hours per week. The exception to this rule is that mins who are 14 to 17 years of age may be employed me than 50 hours per week in agriculture during peak periods. Calculating Overtime Compensation: Each employer subject to Wisconsin s overtime regulations must pay to each covered employee time one half the employee s regular rate of pay f all hours wked in excess of 40 hours per week. Week means a calendar week a regular reoccurring period of 168 hours in the fm of 7 consecutive 24-hour periods. Adults may wk an unlimited number of hours per day per week, as the law sets no limits. The employer has the legal right to set the schedule of hours to be wked the employee does not have the right to refuse to wk unless otherwise negotiated in a collectively bargained agreement. 1

2 Persons Exempt From Overtime in Certain Businesses Circumstances It is the intent of the department to interpret these exemptions to be consistent with any comparable federal statute regulation in respect to the following employees: (1) Persons whose primary duty consists of Administrative, Executive, Or Professional Wk. (a) Executive means an employee employed in a bona fide executive capacity who meets the following criteria: 1. Whose primary duty consists of the management of the enterprise in which he she is employed of a customarily recognized department subdivision; 2. Who customarily regularly directs the wk of 2 me other employees; 3. Who has the authity to hire fire other employees whose suggestions recommendations about the hiring, firing, advancement promotion any other change of status of other employees will be given particular weight; 4. Who customarily regularly exercises discretionary powers; 5. Who does not devote me than 20% ( in the case of an employee of a retail service establishment who does not devote as much as 40%) of his her hours of wk in the wkweek to activities which are not directly closely related to the perfmance of the wk described in sub s. 1 through 4 provided, that this paragraph shall not apply in the case of an employee who is in sole charge of an independent establishment a physically separated branch establishment, who owns at least a 20% interest in the enterprise in which he she is employed; 6. Who is compensated f their services on a salary basis at a rate of $700 per month me. (b) Administrative means an employee employed in a bona fide administrative capacity that meets the following criteria: 1. Whose primary duty consists of the perfmance of office non- 2

3 manual wk directly related to management policies general business operations of his her employer the employer s customers, 2. Who customarily regularly exercises discretion independent judgment; 3. a. Who regularly directly assists a propriet, an employee employed in a bona fide executive administrative capacity; b. Who perfms under only general supervision wk along specialized technical lines requiring special training, experience, knowledge, c. Who executes special assignments tasks solely under only general supervision; 4. Who does not devote me than 20% ( in the case of an employee of a retail service establishment who does not devote as much as 40%) his her hours wked in the wkweek to activities which are not directly closely related to the perfmance of the wk described in sub s. 1 through 3; 5. Who is compensated f his her services on a salary fee basis at a rate of $700 per month me. (c) Professional means an employee employed in a bona fide professional capacity who meets the following criteria: 1. Whose primary duty consists of the perfmance of: a. Wk requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction study, as distinguished from a general academic education from an apprenticeship, from training in the perfmance of routine mental, manual, physical processes, b. Wk that is iginal creative in character in a recognized field of artistic endeav (as opposed to wk which can be produced by a person endowed with general manual intellectual ability training), the result of which depends primarily on the invention, imagination, talent of the employee, 3. Whose wk requires the consistent exercise of discretion judgment in its perfmance; 3

4 4. Whose wk is predominantly intellectual varied in character (as opposed to routine mental, manual, mechanical physical wk) f which the product the result accomplished cannot be stardized in relation to a given period of time; 5. Who does not devote me than 20% of his her hours wked in the wkweek to activities which are not an essential part of the wk described in subs. (1) through (3); 6. Who is compensated f services on a salary fee basis at a rate of $750 per month me. (2) Outside salespersons who spend 80% of their time away from the employer s place of business. (3) Any employee who is a computer programmer, software engineer, other similarly skilled wker, who, in the case of an employee who is compensated on an hourly basis, is compensated at a rate of not less than $27.63 per hour, whose primary duty is one of the following: (a) The application of systems analysis techniques procedures, including consulting with users, to determine hardware, software, system functional specifications. (b) The design, development, documentation, analysis, creation, testing modification of computer systems programs, including prototypes, based on related to user system design specifications. (c) The design, documentation, testing, creation modification of computer programs related to machine operating systems (d) A combination of the duties described in pars. (a), (b) (c), the perfmance of which requires the same level of skills. There are some additional exemptions that require an in-depth review of the regulations f sole charge employees higher paid salaried employees, Please contact the Division f additional infmation. 4

5 Common Questions Concerning State Overtime Requirements 1. If an employer uses a bi-weekly pay period, can the employer pay its employees overtime pay f wking in excess of 80 hours per pay period rather than f over 40 hours per week? No. In calculating overtime pay, the number of hours wked each week in the pay period must st-alone. If an employee wked 35 hours one week 45 hours the second week of a pay period, the employee would be due 5 hours of overtime-premium pay f that pay period. 2. Can an employer an employee enter into an agreement to waive state overtime regulations? An employer an employee do not have the authity to reach an agreement to waive a state law regulation concerning overtime pay. Since federal law may also require an employer to pay its employees overtime pay, it should be noted that a modification waiver of state overtime rules would not exempt the employer from any federal overtime requirement. 3. If an employee wks overtime hours that were not authized by the employer, is the employer required to pay the employee f these hours? Yes. Wk not requested but suffered permitted is wk time. It is the duty of management to exercise control see that wk is not perfmed if it does not want it to be perfmed. It cannot sit back accept the benefits without compensating employees f them. 4. Can an employer use a compensaty time plan to reimburse employees who wk overtime hours instead of paying overtime pay to these wkers? No, except in the same week the wk is perfmed. Wisconsin s Wage Payment Collection law, Chapter 109, requires that employees be paid all wages within 31 days of when the wages were earned. This 5

6 requirement effectively prohibits employees accruing overtime hours beyond the week in which it wked. An employer may choose to pay employees on a salary, commission, piece rate other basis, but f purposes of calculating overtime pay f an employee, the employee s wages must be converted into an hourly rate of pay. This can be accomplished by dividing the total hours an employee actually wks in a pay period into the total regular wages the employee is paid in that pay period (regular wages would include hourly wages, commission, piece rate pay, bonuses, etc.) Example: The employee earns a salary of $ per week plus commission. In this week, the employee wked 44 hours earned a commission of $ Total wages earned in that week total $ The $ becomes straight time f the 44 hours wked. The 44 hours are then divided into the $ to arrive at the regular average hourly rate of $5.57 per hour. the $5.57 is then divided in half, $2.785, to arrive at the half time rate. Then the 4 hours of overtime (44 hours minus 40 equals 4 hours of overtime), times $2.785 equals an additional $11.14 in overtime wage due in this week. Therefe, the total wages to be paid f that week equals $ plus $11.14, f a total of $