Human Resource Blog

Overtime

I am self employed and have 8 employees working for me.The business is not doing very well and the money is tight. I have informed my office staff that there will be no overtime pay, unless it is pre-authorized due to substantial circumstances that will benefit us as a company and not just that individual employees pocket.

One of my employees always punches in 10 or 20 minutes early and punches out 10 or 20 minutes late, as far as her work load is concerned there is no reason for it. Am I obligated to pay the overtime in this sort of case?

Sincerely,
Ben

Yes, under both federal and state minimum wage laws, an employee must be paid for all the time she works. In addition, federal overtime law — the FLSA or Fair Labor Standards Act — probably applies to your company. That law requires that you pay an employee 1.5 times her average hourly rate, when she works more than 40 hours in a payroll week. All of this is true, even if you have specifically told the employee that she is not to work more than 40 hours in the payroll week.

The solution here is simply. You simply need to discipline this employee in writing for any week in which she clocks in early or clocks out late. After three writeups, if she is still clocking in early or clocking out late, you should terminate the employee.

But first, have a discussion with this worker. She may genuinely think she is doing a good job and showing her dedication by coming to work a few minutes early and leaving a few minutes late. She may not realize that when you say *no overtime* you mean even a few minutes a day.