Organizations that have busy seasons can have significant seasonal overtime challenges. Those challenges can include time management, filling shifts and compensating employees. When gearing up for a busy season, organizations are wise to anticipate obstacles and address them before they ramp up.
Who Is Eligible for Overtime?
In most states, employers only have to pay overtime when an employee works more than 40 hours in a week. In a few states though (California and Nevada), overtime may kick in when an employee works more than eight hours in a single day. All non-exempt employees are eligible for overtime, but what about exempt employees?
To keep reading, click here: Managing Seasonal Overtime: Rallying Your Staff for the Busy Season
Nobody wants to have to work overtime, no matter the season. Overtime pay can be kept at minimum if companies would allow the extra staffing labor increase. No matter how many incentives offered to cover certain shifts, everyone wants the primo shifts (day) because the other shifts require the most production increase in work performance. So between the labor constriction set by company and lack of fully motivated employees, coverage of shifts fall to those employees who are willing to work the longer hours. Sometimes these employees may be those rare seasonal employees who are motivated to earn extra money they couldn’t get otherwise. But to handle the overtime payment to any employee, the employer needs to know both the federal mandate and the state mandate. All employers get these regulations yearly with updates for timekeeping payrolls. The biggest change is in the exempt employees who have to watch hours worked to remain within the required hours for the salary or risk needing overtime pay. In this case, they would get overtime only for hours over the required salary hours. Most companies being tight with money will require them to not go over. Nor should any one be scheduled over an 8 hour shift per day or a total of 40 hours per week during the holiday seasons. If staffing hiring occurs, one can avoid all overtime payments because the staff is “technically” present to cover even the busiest days. If company is following the under 29 hour rule for part-timers and 40 hour rule for full-timers with full staffing, there should be no reason for overtime. Overtime occurs when staffing is lower than needs of business and company wants to keep labor under a pre-determined cost.
If only the companies can get the temporary seasonal hires. At my part-time retail job, despite offering $10/hr, the store simply isn’t able to hire enough people. McDonalds is also offering $10/hr, and for permanent jobs. The economy in my area has recovered just enough that people are not desperate to take anything. I think the store has hired just under half the seasonal help they need.
I also temp full-time. And my retail supervisor is not entirely happy with me right now, because I’m not willing to go much over 20 hours a week (I’m supposed to get 15-20 hours a week). I’ll be working 30 hours Thanksgiving week, because of working Thanksgiving evening and night. And 30 hours the week before Christmas. But I can’t work 30 hours a week all during December, because I simply can’t work 70 hours a week for more than a week at a time, and because the store is open to midnight, instead of the normal 9 pm close, and I can’t work until midnight and then get to my other job at 8 am and be even partially functional at either job.
The store keeps trying to entice me with overtime–but I’d have to do more than 40 hours in a week, and that just is not going to happen.
But working on Thanksgiving? We get holiday pay whether we work or not, and if we work, it’s at time-and-a-half. So I can basically make an average week’s pay for a 9 hour shift. So there is some incentive there.