Overtime laws?

Question

I have a question on overtime laws in Texas. I know that some companies pay either time and half or half time, but I heard of this type as well: If you work over 40 hours a week, they take the average of your hourly pay and divided by the hours worked in a week. I heard people call it "chinese pay". I was wondering if its legal and where I can find more information on it? Thank you!

Answer 1

I don't know if what your describing is legal or not. the way I understand overtime is it's overtime when you work over 8 hours a day, or when you work over 40 hours a week depending on the employer.

Answer 2

In many circumstances it can be legal. You can find the actual statutory citation for it by looking at Section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and in Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 778, available at www.dol.gov. What it is, essentially, is a guaranteed salary for all hours worked - your employer says, for instance, that you will receive $500 per week, whether you work 35, 40, or even 50 hours a week. In the weeks when you work 35 hours, your hourly pay equals approx. $14.29 per hour ($500 divided by 35 hours). In the weeks where you work 40 hours, your hourly equivalent is $12.50 per hour ($500 divided by 40), and when you work 50 hours, your hourly equivalent drops to $10 per hour. However, when you work more than 40 hours in a week, your employer should pay you additional half time for those hours over 40 (your guaranteed salary equals the straight time pay for all hours worked, or is the "time" of the "time and a half" required by federal law). So, in the 50 hour week scenario, you should received your $500 plus another $50 for overtime ($500 divided by 50 hours = $10 an hour, x .5 (for the additional half time) = $5.00, x the 10 hours over 40 for the week). The catch to this is that if you work less than 40 hours a week, your employer still has to pay you the full $500 guaranteed salary. If the employer doesn't, it is considered a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. If you want to report a violation, or just want more information on this issue, you should contact the Wage and Hour Division of the US Department of Labor. In addition to the website listed above, you can call them, toll free, at 1-800-4US-WAGE.

As a side note, my understanding of the "true" method of so-called "Chinese" overtime is when your employer reduces your overtime hours by one-third, and then pays for the overtime hours at time and one-half your regular hourly rate so that on the books, it looks like you got paid time and a half for fewer hours than you actually worked. In reality, all you received was your straight time rate of pay for all the hours that you worked. This, too, is generally considered a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and can be reported in the same manner as above. Hope this helps!!

Answer 3

That is the beauty of this country. You are free to work for whomever you wish. If you don't like the way this employer does things then go find another job. If the employer is treating employees too badly then he will go out of business merely because he can't keep employees. Ford Motor Company works employees 4, 10 hour days then they have 3 off. I would love a work schedule like that instead of a mere 7-8 hours spread out over 14 hours in the day.