Question

Huche Company allows its employees to carry over unused personal time off (PTO) days (vacation, sick days, etc.) from year to year. In addition, employees have the option to "cash out" their unused days at the end of the year. John Keevens was just paid $685 for his unused PTO days. Since he is a nonexempt employee, John has questioned the amount of his last paycheck (which includes the $685). The PTO days push the paid hours over 40, and he wants to be paid for his overtime hours. What would you tell John?

Answer 1

John is a non exempt employee, which means he is not exempted from the guidelines provided by FLSA on overtime pay. Employees who are non-exempt only are entitled to overtime payment,provided they work for more than 40 hours in a given week. They are paid 1.5 times the wage rate for the over time hours. So as per the FLSA guidelines, when an employee "works" for mpre than 40 hours, he is eligible for overtime, however basing on this operative word work, most of the employers exclude overtime from their PTO/vacation policies from the work week of 40 hours for overtime, which means an employee needs to work the 40 hours in the week of work to be eligible for being paid for overtime. So John, will not be paid for the overtime hours.