Overtime Eligible Resources
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Washington State Labor and Industries (L&I) establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards affecting employees in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments.
Unless exempt, employees covered by the Act must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay. WWU calls positions that are covered by FLSA overtime regulations “overtime eligible”.
Overtime eligible employees follow the positive time reporting method. This means that they record the number of hours worked each day as well as any leave taken and overtime worked on their timesheets.
Note: Western’s workweek starts on Monday at 12:01 a.m. and ends the following Sunday at 12:00 midnight.
Traveling For Work
Going forward, WWU’s policy on overnight travel will be updated to include paid travel time outside of normally scheduled hours. If you are required to travel for a work assignment, you will be paid for the time it takes to travel to and from the work assignment. The means of travel must be approved by your direct supervisor. The time spent working or attending required meetings will be paid time. Any free time between meetings and traveling is not compensated. Time for meals or optional social events would not be considered worked time and would not be compensated.
Traveling For Work Details and Examples
Travel that keeps the employee away from home overnight is clearly hours worked. This would include normal work hours on Saturdays and Sundays, even if it is not their normally scheduled day of work. These general guidelines should be considered for determining hours worked:
- Time spent traveling as a passenger in a car or common carrier (plane, train, bus) during normal work hours is considered hours worked.
- Any time spent driving a vehicle for work is considered hours worked.
- Regular meal periods should not be considered hours worked unless attendance is mandatory at a group meeting.
- Any time spent working while traveling (answering phone calls, emails, completing projects, etc.) is considered hours worked.
Example
An employee is attending a three day conference in Los Angeles and will be traveling from Thursday to Sunday. The employee’s normal work hours are 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. They arrive at Bellingham airport at 7 a.m. and arrive in Los Angeles at 11 a.m. The employee rents a car and drives to the hotel and has the rest of the day for themselves. There is an optional networking dinner at 6 p.m. The conference events are held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The employee leaves Los Angeles at 9 p.m. on Sunday and arrives back home in Bellingham at 12 midnight.
- On Thursday, the employee would report hours worked for the time they spent traveling to the airport, until they arrive at the destination hotel. This time is compensable because the travel is part of the work assignment. If the employer approves the means of travel, the employee is considered to be on duty throughout the active travel time. Any free time spent at the hotel, or traveling around the city, is not considered hours worked. The employee would not report hours worked for the optional social event.
- All time spent at the conference on Friday, Saturday and Sunday would be considered hours worked except regular meal periods or any time the employee leaves the conference for personal time. If meals are mandatory or networking is an expectation of the supervisor, it may be counted as hours worked.
- Most evening activities that occur outside the employee’s normal working hours is not considered time worked unless attendance is mandatory or an expectation of the supervisor.
- Time spent traveling back from Los Angeles to Bellingham is considered compensable time.
Need additional help?
Calculating hours worked during travel can be complex and unique to each situation. We encourage you to contact HR prior to traveling if you have any questions or would like assistance in planning for your trip
If an employee is given a special one-day assignment in another city it is not regarded as ordinary home-to-work travel.
Example
An employee with regular work hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. is given a special assignment in Seattle. They are instructed to leave Bellingham at 7 a.m. The special assignment ends at 5 p.m., and the employee arrives back in Bellingham at 7 p.m.
The balance of time between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. is considered hours worked, with the exception of meal periods.
Need additional help?
Calculating hours worked during travel can be complex and unique to each situation. We encourage you to contact HR prior to traveling if you have any questions or would like assistance in planning for your trip
Authorization to work overtime hours
All employees must have approval from their supervisor to work more than their regular work schedule. This approval should be documented in writing. Supervisors and employees can use the Request for Overtime and Hours Over Appointment Approval form to document approved overtime or hours over appointment. Additionally, for some positions that work overtime on a routine or frequent basis, the supervisor may provide a “blanket” overtime approval that covers hours of overtime up to a certain threshold per week/pay period/month.
Overtime eligible employees must be paid for all hours worked whether overtime has been approved or not. However, employees who work unauthorized overtime hours may be subject to corrective action.
Overtime compensation & computation
Overtime calculation differs by employee type as shown in the table below:
| Professional staff employees | Classified staff employees | |
|---|---|---|
| full time | All hours worked over 40 in a workweek are eligible for overtime pay. |
Refer to the applicable collective bargaining agreement for the overtime calculation for the bargaining unit: PSE - BUD & PTE (article 15) WFSE - BUA/B/E/F/G (article 8) |
| part time |
All hours worked over 40 in a workweek are eligible for overtime pay. Note: hours worked above an employee’s appointment percentage not exceeding 40 in a workweek are considered Hours Over Appointment and are paid at the employee’s regular rate of pay. Hours over appointment must be pre-approved by the supervisor. |
All hours worked over 40 in a workweek are eligible for overtime pay. Note: hours worked above an employee’s appointment percentage not exceeding 40 in a workweek are considered Hours Over Appointment and are paid at the employee’s regular rate of pay. Hours over appointment must also be pre-approved by the supervisor. |
For all employee types, overtime is paid at 1.5 times the regular rate of pay. Under certain conditions compensatory time may be taken in lieu of overtime at the rate of 1.5 hours of compensatory time for each overtime hour worked.
Compensatory time (comp time)
In certain situations, an employee may receive comp time in lieu of overtime pay.
If the employee is working overtime at the supervisor’s request, the employee will have the option to choose between overtime pay or comp time.
If the employee is requesting to work overtime, the supervisor may approve the request with a contingency that the overtime be taken as comp time.
Accrued comp time balance is cashed out at termination.
Meal & break periods
• Classified staff should refer to their CBA
• Professional staff should refer to WA State Department of Labor & Industries Rest Breaks, Meal Periods & Schedules webpage
Contact your HR Consultant with any questions.
Partial day absences
If you are overtime-eligible, you must use appropriate paid leave to cover a partial day absence.
- Classified staff employees should refer to their collective bargaining agreements for more information on types of leave and appropriate usage
- Professional staff employees should refer to the pro staff handbook for more information on types of leave and appropriate usage
Flexible schedules
With supervisor approval, overtime-eligible employees in bargaining unit D, or professional staff employees, may adjust their work schedule to accommodate partial day absences and ensure that their full appointment percentage is worked each week.
Example: A full-time employee must leave work 2 hours early for a medical appointment and they report only 6 hours worked. The following day the employee works 2 additional hours for a total of 10 hours. The employee works their regular schedule for the rest of the week and in total has worked 40 hours.
Employees in all other bargaining units report their time on a daily basis and must account for all time worked and leave taken accordingly.
NOTE: Employees in bargaining unit PTE (PSE) may, with mutual agreement from their supervisor, waive the daily overtime calculation so that they only accrue overtime if they work beyond 40 hours in a workweek. This mutual agreement must be documented in writing.
Timesheet reporting
Informational guides on how to report leave and hours worked on your timesheet can be found below:
SUPERVISORS:
- For information on how to approve timesheets, please review our Approving timesheets guide.
- To become a payroll approver, please follow the instructions on the Requesting payroll approver permissions guide.
If you have any questions about your timesheet or paycheck please contact the Payroll team at 360-650-2991, or HR.Payroll@wwu.edu.
Suspended operations & inclement weather
Overtime-eligible employees should follow the university’s suspended operations and inclement weather policies. Additionally, classified staff employees need to refer to their collective bargaining agreement for information specific to their bargaining unit.
Suspended operations - applies when the university is CLOSED
If the university closes, do not report on site unless you are designated as essential personnel and required to work onsite.
COVID-19 Note: Employees designated as critical on-site personnel for the purposes of current COVID-19 operations are not automatically designated as essential personnel for the purposes of suspended operations (the majority of the university’s essential personnel are in Facilities Management and University Police). Ask your supervisor if you are unsure of your position’s designation.
All other employees, including classified and professional staff, are expected to work remotely during suspended operations of less than 15 days. If you do not regularly work remotely, work with your supervisor to plan remote work options in advance. This can include professional development.
If you are unavailable to work remotely, you may use leave, or leave without pay, in accordance with the
File
interim standard and collective bargaining agreements (for classified staff).
Inclement weather - applies when the university is OPEN
Employees who regularly report onsite when the university is open but are unable to report to work at their regularly scheduled shift time due to adverse weather conditions, may use leave accordingly:
- Classified staff should refer to their collective bargaining agreement and inclement weather time reporting standard
- Professional staff should refer to the inclement weather policy and time reporting standard
Employees with multiple jobs
According to the US Department of Labor, an employee cannot be considered exempt from overtime and non-exempt (i.e. eligible for overtime) by the same employer. The determination of the exemption status is driven by the employee’s primary job with the employer. Overtime eligible employees may have multiple jobs in multiple classifications either on a temporary or permanent basis. However, all positions must be considered non-exempt if their primary job is non-exempt. Overtime eligible staff may be eligible to teach courses as NTT Faculty at the University according to specific guidelines in addition to their primary job.