Scope
Staff employees
Policy Statement
Salaried Staff
Salaried staff are paid semi-monthly and are exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Under special circumstances supervisors and managers have the discretion to grant time off with pay (comp time) to exempt staff that have worked substantial extra hours. For exempt employees, comp time does not need to be taken during the same work week. It may be taken at any later date.
Hourly Staff
Staff members who are paid “hourly” are non-exempt and therefore subject to the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (i.e., they are required to be paid time and one-half their regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a week).
- For the purposes of computing overtime, in addition to hours actually worked, all paid time off including vacation, holiday, personal business, jury duty, etc., except sick time, is counted as time worked.
- Any work performed by an hourly (non-student) employee on a regular University holiday is paid at the overtime rate. Temporary staff employees are also entitled to holiday pay if a holiday falls on a regularly scheduled work day.
- A meal period of at least 30 minutes is required by NYS labor law for any employee after 6 hours of work.
- Staff members are allowed a paid work break of up to 15 minutes in each half of the workday. This time is intended to attend to personal needs including smoking breaks and cannot be accumulated or used for early dismissal.
- Time spent traveling to or from an assignment is not compensable if it is performed outside of the time that an employee performs his principal activity. Out of town travel during the regular workday is normally compensable. Out of town travel overnight or over the weekend is also compensable during the hours corresponding to the employee’s regular work day. However, you don’t need to pay employees for out of town travel time outside their normal working hours if they are merely a passenger in an airplane, train, boat, bus, or car driven by another person.
- Time spent putting on mandatory uniforms or protective clothing is part of a job, so that time is compensable.
- New York Labor Law requires that employers grant most employees at least 24 consecutive hours of rest in every calendar week. This covers part-time employees, also.
- Temporary employees should not be assigned overtime before bargaining unit employees, except in cases of emergency or to finish a job.
- If employees are called back to work after having punched out for the day, they are guaranteed four hours of pay or four hours of work. This does not include reporting early for their shifts. If employees are scheduled for overtime in advance (i.e., the day before), they will be guaranteed 2 hours of pay or two hours of work. In both cases, employees must actually report for the work. If the assignment is cancelled beforehand, there is no guarantee. If there is work available and the employee refuses, the guaranteed minimum is forfeited.
- Compensatory Time (Comp Time) may also be granted to non-exempt employees as a legal method of limiting or avoiding overtime payments by altering non-exempt staff work schedules. Hourly staff members are given time off (without pay) to compensate for time worked. For example, if a staff member comes in early, works late or works on a weekend, that staff member may be scheduled for correspondingly fewer hours during the remainder of the week to limit the total hours worked to 37.5 or 40. However, the comp time must be scheduled and taken during the work week in which the extra hours were incurred; by the end of the work week (i.e., Wednesday at midnight) the staff member must be paid for all hours worked that week. Compensatory time may not be accrued and taken in a subsequent week or weeks.
- For bargaining unit employees, the terms of the current bargaining unit contract supersede this policy.
Policy Administration
Links to Procedures and Related Information
Date: March 2007