Overview By law, employees who work more than 8 hours on any given day, and/or 40 hours in any week, must be paid overtime for that day and/or week. However, because employees must be in a pay status for 8 hours a day and/or 40 hours a week, those who use unpaid leave must substitute approved overtime hours to cover the time in a nonpay status - before they may be paid overtime. This time is recorded under substitute hours. Substitute hours are actually regular hours worked.
Before overtime hours may be recorded and paid, regular hours plus substitute hours must equal 40 for the administrative workweek.
Exception: As stated above, an employee who works more than 8 hours on any given day must be paid overtime for that day. Therefore, if an employee works more than 8 hours in a day, he/she must be paid overtime for the number of hours over 8 for that day, even though he/she has not worked 40 hours in the administrative workweek. These overtime hours would then not count toward the required total of 40 regular hours.
Note: For non-standard tours, such as a compressed work schedule, employees must be paid overtime for any hours worked over their regularly scheduled daily tours (i.e., hours over 9, 10, or the applicable number of hours).
See examples on next page.
Pay Rate Substitute hours are paid at the employee's regular hourly rate, not the overtime rate.
Same
Administrative Workweek
If unpaid leave is used, any overtime hours worked during the same administrative workweek must be substituted for the unpaid leave hours in that workweek (up to 8 hours a day and/or 40 hours a week), before any overtime hours are paid.
Different
Administrative Workweek
Overtime hours in one administrative workweek cannot be substituted for unpaid leave used in a different administrative workweek, even if the weeks are during the same pay period.
SUBSTITUTING OVERTIME FOR UNPAID LEAVE
Examples Example 1: Phyllis works 8 hours a day (40 hours a week), Monday through Friday, with a 30 minute lunch break each day. In Week 2, she was approved to work 12 hours of overtime (2 hours each day Wednesday through Friday, and 6 hours on Saturday).
Phyllis worked her regular schedule during Week 1. However, in Week 2 she used 8 hours LWOP on Monday. She did work the overtime as approved, but her total overtime paid is only 6 hours.
Clarification: In Week 2, Phyllis did work the approved 12 hours overtime, but she also used 8 hours of LWOP. Since her total regular hours worked was 32 instead of the required 40, she needed another 8 hours for the week. The 6 hours overtime worked on Saturday then had to be substituted for LWOP, giving her a total of 38 regular hours for the week paid at her regular rate of pay.
She is paid at the overtime rate of pay for the 2 hours worked each day Wednesday through Friday. Because she worked more than 8 hours on these days, Phyllis must be paid at the overtime rate (even though she did not have 40 hours for the week).
Example 2: Robert works 8 hours a day (40 hours a week), Monday through Friday, with a 30 minute lunch break each day. In Week 2, he was approved to work 16 hours of overtime (2 hours each day Tuesday through Friday, and 8 hours on Saturday).
In both workweeks, Robert used 8 hours of LWOP on Monday. He worked his regular schedule the rest of the pay period, plus the 16 overtime hours as approved. His total overtime paid is 8 hours.
Clarification: Robert did work the approved 16 hours overtime in Week 2. However, he also used 8 hours LWOP that week, giving him a total of 32 regular hours in a pay status. The 8 overtime hours worked on
Saturday then had to be substituted for the LWOP hours, giving him a total of 40 regular hours for the week.
In Week 1, no overtime hours can be substituted for LWOP because it is a different administrative workweek than the one in which overtime hours were worked. Also, even if hours could be substituted, the 2 worked each day Tuesday through Friday, Week 2, must be paid at the overtime rate because Robert worked over 8 hours each day.
SUBSTITUTING OVERTIME FOR UNPAID LEAVE
Examples Example 3: Jane works 8 hours a day (40 hours a week), Monday through Friday, with a 30 minute lunch break each day. In Week 1, she was approved to work 14 hours of overtime (2 hours each day Wednesday and Thursday, and 10 hours on Saturday).
In Week 1, Jane worked her regular schedule Monday through 12:00 noon on Friday. She then used 4 hours LWOP for the balance of the day on Friday. She worked the overtime as approved.
In Week 2, Jane worked her regular schedule. Her total overtime pay for the pay period was 10 hours.
Clarification: In Week 1, although Jane did work the approved 14 hours overtime, she also used 4 hours of LWOP on Friday, giving her a total of 36 regular hours for the week. Of the 10 hours worked on Saturday, 4 were substituted for the LWOP hours used on Friday. The other 6 hours worked on Saturday were paid as overtime because they were over the required weekly total of 40.
The extra 2 hours worked each day on Wednesday and Thursday were paid at the overtime rate. They cannot be substituted for LWOP hours, and Jane must be paid overtime for these hours, because any hours over 8 in a day must be paid at the overtime rate.
Example 4: Curtis works 10 hours a day (40 hours a week), Monday through Thursday, with a 30 minute lunch break each day. He was approved to work 20 hours of overtime (10 hours each Friday of the pay period).
Curtis worked his regular schedule Monday through Wednesday, both weeks, plus the approved 20 hours overtime as scheduled. On Thursday, both weeks, he used 10 hours LWOP.
Curtis is not paid any overtime hours.
Clarification: The overtime worked both Fridays must be used to substitute for the LWOP hours Curtis used both Thursdays in order for him to reach a total of 40 hours per week.
Curtis is not entitled to any overtime pay.