Comments on: Discussing Money at Work - Part 3: Payment for overtime

By: vp075

vp075 — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:00:39 +0000

Jay,

All of the tecniques that you mention are predicated upon having the confidence to know that you are valued enough for an employer to be willing to negotiate you. There are a lot of companies and managers who will just say ‘no’ to even to most conifidently aproached requests for additional pay/benefits, however fair. Lots of companies, particularly consulting companies, have business models based on the overworking and underpaying of young, ambitious people. None of these techniques will work for someone who isn’t ready, if all else fails, to find annother job or just walk if need be (which people should be ready to do a lot more than they are.) Otherwise, if you are called on it, you have nothing to back it up, and people seem to be able to tell when this is the case.

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 07:52:01 +0000

Great article Jay! I’ll be sure to take it to heart as I start my career this fall.

Great idea for an article Megan, I hope Jay picks it up

By: Megan

Megan — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 07:47:56 +0000

Loved this one. I laughed. Your suggested responses were so naturally cool, and yet still so meaningful. Speaking from and for my own experience, your emphasis on asking for money beyond the quick fix has done it’s job for me on both fronts. The focus on human value seems to be a common thread here and I really enjoy it. I’ll mentally keep this one to send on the next time it’s needed.

Also, I was meaning to ask. On what other subjects will you be writing communication articles? Anxiety, career, coffee… How about “Share uncommon personal beliefs comfortably.” I’ve been thinking about this one quite a bit lately.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 23:04:23 +0000

Jay, you should make your readers aware that there is a federal law known as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) which provides that an employer who requires or permits an employee to work overtime is generally required to pay the employee premium pay for such overtime work.

Unless specifically exempted, employees covered by the Act must receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay.

The overtime requirement may not be waived by agreement between the employer and employees. An agreement that only 8 hours a day or only 40 hours a week will be counted as working time also fails the test of FLSA compliance. An announcement by the employer that no overtime work will be permitted, or that overtime work will not be paid for unless authorized in advance, also will not impair the employee’s right to compensation for compensable overtime hours that are worked.

For additional information, readers should visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division Website: http://www.wagehour.dol.gov and/or call their toll-free information and helpline, available 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in your time zone, 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243).

By: Stacy

Stacy — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:59:23 +0000

It’s my understanding that Time Substitution is not an option in California. I live in Dallas, so this may not be accurate. But when I worked for an employer who had multiple office, including one in L.A., it was a big deal that support technicians could not work overtime (because the company didn’t offer payment for it), and could not time substitute.

Maybe a commenter from California can weigh in on the issue.

By: Aussie Joe

Aussie Joe — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:15:17 +0000

Hi Jay, lovely article which resonates with my own experiences.

When I’ve been offered Time Substitution I always lock in a date for the substitution then and there. eg:

Employer: “Hey Joe, we’ve got a bit of an emergency can you come in over the weekend to fix it / help out?”

Me (after assessing how much effort is likely to be required): “Yeah sure! OK if I come in at / after lunch on Monday?” … I’ve never had a no.

Cheers,
J

By: Kelvin Kao

Kelvin Kao — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:05:39 +0000

That was an awesome article, Jay. I read something about how you should calculate your real wage using what you actually earn and how many hours you actually put in. I’ve been tallying up my data but I wanted to go a little longer before I do the calculation, so I don’t influence the outcome as much.

For me though, since we are constantly working on different projects, one way we deal with it is that if we get the same type of projects where overtime hour is expected again, we simply tell them to pay more or we’ll just pass on it. By now we generally have a good idea of what requires overtime and what does not.