Ever thought calculating overtime pay for nonexempt employees was as simple as counting extra hours and multiplying by a higher rate? Think again. 

Common folk lore says you simply count the hours the employee works beyond 40 hours a week. Then you multiply that by 1.5 times their hourly pay rate and you’re done, right? Not so fast.  The truth is that overtime rules and the mathematics required to arrive at the correct calculation can be extremely tricky.  Overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act is based on a unique term, created in 1938, known as the regular rate of pay. And calculating the regular rate of pay is more complex than it appears.  What’s included in the calculation?  

The reasonable cost of meals, lodging, nondiscretionary bonuses, commissions, on-call pay, shift differentials, cash benefit payments from Section 125 Cafeteria Plans, the list goes on… And that’s just computing the regular rate – we haven’t even touched overtime yet! For example, when a bonus must be included in calculating the rate what overtime does it apply to? When the bonus is paid or when the bonus was earned? What if the bonus spans a long period of time such as a quarter or a full year?

Then what happens if you get it wrong?  Nobody pays attention, do they? According to the Department of Labor, they collected more than $230 million in back wages for more than 190,000 workers in FY 2021 alone. Of that amount collected, $138 million was for back overtime. 

Penalties for overtime violations can be severe with the possibility of fines, imprisonment, or both!  Add civil suits to the mix and the results can be devastating to any business no matter how large or small!  And just to make it interesting, most states use the same definition to calculate overtime as the FLSA does. So, one error can earn you double the penalties.

In this Webinar, we're diving deep. We'll kick off with section 1, unraveling who's eligible for overtime. From there, we'll decode the crucial definitions that underpin accurate overtime calculations. The Portal-to-Portal Act will shed light on what truly constitutes "hours worked." Armed with these fundamentals, we'll demystify the regular rate of pay and its impact on overtime. Get ready to master the art of calculating overtime pay, factoring in various additional pay and multi-week scenarios. And that's not all – we'll also explore other intricate calculations that can sway overtime payment outcomes.

After all, one miscalculation could lead to penalties that pack a double punch, especially considering most states mirror the FLSA's overtime definition. Let's unlock the secrets together.

Learning Objectives:-

• To explore the definitions that relate to the payment of overtime under the FLSA/Portal-to-Portal Act.
• To discover how to calculate the regular rate of pay.
• To identify how to track hours worked and the use of rounding practices.
• To recognize when you must include a bonus in calculating your employee’s overtime pay.
• To explore how to calculate overtime if a bonus covers more than one workweek.

Areas Covered:-

• FLSA method
• Salaried nonexempt employees and overtime
• What payments to include
• Overtime that covers more than one workweek
• What payments do not need to be included