When an employee is not specifically exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) overtime requirements, you must pay for hours worked over 40 per work week at a rate that’s at least one and one-half times the employee’s regular rate of pay. If during a single work week an employee does two or more different jobs, and each has different straight-time rates, you get the regular rate for that work week by adding all the earnings from all rates together, then dividing this total by the total number of hours worked at all jobs.
For example, Dave works a 35-hour week on the production line at $15 per hour; you’ve also agreed that he can return to your plant four nights a week to do some cleaning work, for which he’ll be paid $8 per hour.
During the first week of this arrangement, Dave put in 12 hours cleaning, bringing his total work hours to 47, or seven hours of overtime. But his regular rate for overtime purposes is neither $15 per hour nor $8 per hour. You calculate total pay, including overtime, this way:
(1) Calculate each job separately, then combine:
- 35 hours @ $15 per hour = $525
- 12 hours @ $8 per hour = $96
- Total: $621
(2) Divide total dollars by total hours worked to determine the regular rate:
- $621 divided by 47 = $13.21
(3) Determine overtime premium (50 percent):
- $13.21 × .5 = $6.61
(4) Apply premium to hours worked over 40 per week:
- 7 × $6.61 = $46.27
(5) Total wages owed, before deductions:
- $621 + $46.27 = $667.27
