Starting Dec. 1, new DOL rules take effect that nearly double the salary threshold at which most salaried workers become exempt from having to be paid overtime.
The overtime ceiling will rise from $23,660 per year to $47,476. That means more than 4 million additional white-collar workers will qualify for overtime pay for the first time.
If you're serious about managing those new, higher payroll costs, you're going to require supervisors to keep careful tabs on hours worked — and all the documentation that backs it up.
You only have until Dec. 1 to adjust your employees' pay and classifications to get in compliance with the new changes to federal overtime law. Decisions you make now will have huge, costly implications for years to come … get it right the first time with Overtime Q&A: Answers to Your Questions About the New Wage & Hour Rules.
Now is the time to train bosses on their responsibilities for complying with your overtime policies. Warn them against making these mistakes:
1. Allowing casual overtime. Now more than ever, it's critical to require employees to get advance approval to work overtime. Supervisors are your gatekeepers here. They can OK overtime hours; they can refuse to authorize overtime. They are responsible for initiating discipline against employees who work unauthorized overtime.
Critically, they must never allow off-the-clock work.
Note: You must still pay full overtime wages to employees who work unauthorized overtime.
Every attendee to the Overtime Q&A will receive a copy of Anniken Davenport's book, The 2016 Overtime Rules: How to Comply. It's your up-to-the-minute reference guide to total FLSA compliance. It breaks down the new regulations into plain English and includes checklists and exemption tests so you don't make a single classification misstep. Get answers to all your compliance questions at this special one-time Overtime Q&A webinar!
2. Miscalculating overtime pay. Train managers to check the math on time sheets, if you use them. Employees earn overtime at one-and-a-half times their regular rates of pay. As a general rule, any payment that's measured by or based on employees' hours worked, production or efficiency must be included in wages for purposes of determining the regular rate of pay.
3. Not paying telecommuters properly. Out of sight cannot mean out of mind. Employees who work from home must be paid for every hour worked.
Problem: Getting them to keep track of their hours. Have bosses and telecommuters come to a reasonable agreement regarding work hours. Have both parties sign a copy, which should be placed in the employee's file.
Watch out: Train managers to periodically gauge telecommuters' output. Does it appear that they may be working more than 40 hours per week? If so, that calls for an amicable conversation about agreed-upon hours and the consequences of working unauthorized overtime.
During the Overtime Q&A, Anniken will give a quick briefing on the new changes and then open the floor to your specific compliance questions.
Every HR and payroll pro in America needs to be able to confidently (and competently) answer questions like: - What's the best (and legally safest) way to alter your compensation and classifications?
- Should you convert exempt workers to hourly status rather than pay increased weekly base salary?
How should you deal with the new exempt classification rules?- When should you add bonuses to base pay … and what does the new 10% rule mean?
- Should you lower the hourly equivalent rates of pay for formerly exempt workers to make up for the new OT hours?
- Should you rewrite job descriptions? If so, how?
- What new recordkeeping is required?
- And, most importantly, how do these changes affect YOUR organization?
Register now for the Sept. 16 webinar.
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