Human Resource Blog

Tennessee Bank Overtime

	Benefits
Total Compensation Summary Performance Improvement Plan Performance Appraisal and Review Employee Payroll Status/Change Form Employee Change Form

	HR Management
Confidential Employee Folder Confidential Employee Medical Folder Job File Worksheet Folder Daily EEO Applicant Flow Log Workplace Information Sheets Request to Inspect Personnel Files

In Tennessee, can a supervisor legally require a bank branch Assistant Manager to work 6 or 7 days per week, 8 hours per day? In the past, the Assistant Manager has always had 2 days off every week. If so, is the Assistant Manager entitled to a raise?

Employers must comply with federal and state overtime laws. Otherwise, there are almost no restrictions on the number of hours that a business may require any employee over 18 years old to work. In Tennessee, essentially, employers may demand that an employee work 12 or more hours for 7 days a week. They may require this for month after month. Some employers actually do.

How would overtime laws apply to a salaried worker? If an employee is a manager or executive and “salaried exempt,” then overtime laws do not apply. It sounds as if this employee is in the “salaried exempt” category and thus not entitled, by law, to overtime.

It is not enough simply to call an employee a “manager” to make them salaried exempt. In order to fall into that category, the “manager” or “executive” must usually supervise a minimum of 3 workers. That generally means having the independent authority to hire and fire without consultation. Administrative workers must have the power to make important and independent business decisions in order to fall into the salaried exempt category.

Finally, any salaried employee who earns less than $455 weekly is entitled to overtime when he or she works more than 40 hours in a week.

It would be good if employers paid more ever time they gave an employee more hours or responsibilities, but no law requires it. Businesses may, and often do, change working conditions regularly.

In some states, there are restrictions on the number of overtime hours people in certain occupations can work. Nurses may not be required to work overtime in Massachusetts, for example. The Department of Transportation makes it illegal for long-haul truck drivers to work more than 70 hours in 8 days or 60 hours in a 7-day stretch.

In a small number of states, laws have been passed requiring that workers get one day off a week. Usually, however, those kinds of laws do not extend to the salaried employee. JH