Why Do Employees Get Paid After Hours

886 Words2 Pages

Change, while unavoidable in companies, is not always a welcomed thing. As the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is revising their overtime exemption rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for 2016, many companies are panicking at the response this will yield from their employees. The adjustment of what qualifies employees for exempt status, where their overtime hours working are not paid for, will lead many in workplace to punch time cards whom have never done so before. Personally, the thought of being paid for the work I do after hours would be gladly received as an increased salary. However, many employees interpret their transition from exempt to non­exempt as a degradation of their professional status.

Employers can expect many …show more content…

This will be a new practice for many of them. It will be hard to accept and even implement,” said Robert Boonin, immediate past chair of the Wage and Hour Defense Institute, a network of wage and hour lawyers, and an attorney with Dykema in Detroit, Mich. “It'll be a cultural change to many and perceived as a step back in career growth.”

The benefits and privileges that come or are dropped from an exempt to non­exempt employee will also have to be reviewed by companies. Updates paid time off, vacation days, or life insurance must be given by companies to employees who's status has shifted. While the deadline to comply with the DOL and FLSA's action is December 1 of this year, human resources experts suggest the conversation regarding exempt status begins as early as …show more content…

Leaders should aim to highlight the benefits of status change, such as the fact that non­exempt employees will now be paid for their overtime hours. They can continue working their regular work hours, but benefit from additional compensation. A potential confusion managers need to clear up for employees is that newly non­exempt employees now have no control over the hours they can and cannot work. Marie LaMarche, SHRM­SCP, labor relations division director for Tacoma, Wash.­based CHI Franciscan Health, states in the Society for Human Resource Management, “If the salaried basis is important to an employer’s employees, then it is probably important to use that method of compensation... Relaying that they will now be paid overtime often brings about comments like, ‘Our department is not allowed OT, so that means I’m not going to get my work done. Often, employees feel that nonexempt means [working] 8 to 5 every day, and they can’t work a minute past that. But flexibility can still occur. If an employee needs to stay late for a specific task or meeting, then they can adjust their time on a different day during that

Open Document