HAPPY HOLIDAYS — Fairmont State University is closed for Winter Break
Happy Holidays from Fairmont State University. The University is closed from 4 p.m.
Friday, December 20 through Thursday, January 2. Fairmont State will reopen on Friday,
January 3.
On Tuesday, April 23, 2024 the Department of Labor announced changes to the definition
of what compensation amount qualifies to be salaried. You can find the Department
of Labor announcement here. The University has been monitoring this potential development
for several months and continues to track the final results of this process, as there
is still the potential for legal challenges to this final ruling for January 2025.
These changes will not affect our faculty per the definitions created by this rule.
University administration and the Office of Human Resources will continue working
toward best defining how this will affect our Campus Community. As the University
continues managing these changes, information and updates can be found here on the
Human Resources website. A list of federal FAQs regarding the rule can be found on
the DOL website.
Wage & Hour Division Fact Sheets
Fact Sheet #17D — Exemption for Professional Employees Under the FLSA
Fact Sheet #17S — Higher Education Institutions and Overtime Pay Under the FLSA
If the question is about the time-stamping process, you should email it to payroll@fairmontstate.edu. If the question is about your job duties or FLSA designation, send an email to hr@fairmontstate.edu.
You will be notified by the Office of Human Resources. The rule does not apply to
faculty. In 2016 a similar rule was issued but was halted by an injunction, which
may occur again this year. If the courts halt it, Fairmont State University will reassess
its approach to these changes and update the campus community.
The Fair Labor Standards Act establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping,
and youth employment standards. The University’s compensation policies and processes
comply with the FLSA.
Non-exempt employees are covered by the overtime and recordkeeping provisions of the
FLSA and are entitled to overtime pay if work exceeds 40 hours in one workweek. Overtime
is paid at a premium of time and one-half of the employee’s regular hourly rate and
compensated either in pay or in accrual of compensatory time.
Exempt employees are not covered by the overtime provisions of the FLSA and are paid
an agreed-upon amount for the whole job, regardless of the amount of time or effort
required to complete the work. Exempt employees receive a set monthly salary regardless
of the number of hours worked. Exempt employees do not record hours of work.
On 7/1/24 the threshold increased to $43,888. It is scheduled to increase again on
1/1/25 to $58,656, and then every three years.
Employees affected by these FLSA changes who make under the threshold will be converted
to non-exempt.
The only thing that we are asking that you micromanage is the overtime. Please try
to keep everything else the way that it has been in the past. We are going to have
to get creative in our approach to these FLSA changes.
Flex time is when an employee works additional hours in one workday and is allowed
to take time off on another workday (in the same work week) without recording overtime
hours. This is a way of adjusting an employee’s hours per day to prevent the employee
from exceeding 37.5 hours in any single work week. This might also be referred to
as “rearrange time”; meaning that an employee may rearrange their work schedule to
meet department demands while staying under 37.5 hours.
Flex-time can be used to manage fluctuations in the weekly 37.5-hour employee schedule.
Compensatory/overtime must be scheduled and approved in advance. My suggestion is
to consider making scheduling adjustments. Maybe consider rotating staff members to
include a person to stay “30” minutes late every day. Maybe consider making the last
appointment at 4:00 pm. Think outside the box on how to make it work.
Compensatory time is the process of crediting an employee for personal hours in lieu
of monetary overtime compensation. Compensatory time, unlike flex time, can be used
at any point in the future. Compensatory time must be credited at straight time or
time and a half for each overtime hour worked.
Yes, comp time is an option in lieu of overtime. Comp time can be tracked in UKG.
Fairmont State University employees can accumulate a maximum of 240 hours of compensatory
time (480 for police officers). Compensatory time expires after 1 year from the date
earned if it’s not used.
No, this is because Payroll has to change your pay code in UKG.
If there is no overtime budget, you won’t be able to offer payment. Compensatory time
might be your only option.
Yes. You will enter your time in UKG.
Yes. You will need to clock in and out for lunch using UKG.
Remember, you have to pay employees for working. Taking 15 or 30 minutes to email
appointment cancellations will need to be coded as “regular” pay. The remainder of
the day will be paid “sick” time. The employee will not be paid more than 7.5 hours
for the day and therefore compensatory time is not an issue. Again, we need to start
thinking of a solution on how to manage the unexpected. Can we assign a buddy/backup
system to make the cancellation calls?
Service on committees across campus should be approved by the department Director.
The supervisor should evaluate if these committees interfere with the employee's ability
to get their work done. If the supervisor approves the committee work, the hours served
on the committee will be included in the 37.5-hour work week.
Holiday time off, annual & sick leave are not included in the computation of overtime.
Overtime/Compensatory Time starts after an employee has actually worked 37.5 hours
in the work week.
You will need to develop an equitable process to handle comp and overtime. However,
it doesn’t have to be distributed equally and it can be voluntary.
Correct. You will need to create some ground rules because this can be a very slippery
slope. Since I know that there are certain times of the year that working over will
be necessary and expected, should I create an expected overtime budget based on the
number of hours I would anticipate in overtime in consideration of each staff member’s
pay rate?
The budget for FY 25 is already approved and complete. Your only option may be to
award compensatory time off.
Hourly employees are not permitted to work as adjunct employees.
Departmental leadership will need to manage attendance of University events. Employees
don’t have to be compensated to attend voluntary events and the needs of the department
should be primary. Events that are related to the employees’ job duties should be
considered release time.
No. Only actual hours worked are included in the computation of overtime.
First time, tell them to do better and remind them it must be approved in advance.
Make sure the employee is still compensated. Second offense, start documentation/Disciplinary
process.
Yes, A full-time Fairmont State University employee may be allowed time off during
scheduled work hours to attend class, provided the employee’s absence will not interfere
with their work unit’s operation. Each unit head has the responsibility to approve
or reject requests. This policy applies to both exempt and non-exempt employees. There
is no basic employee right to attend class during work time and the needs of the unit
must take precedence. Employees wishing to take courses at Fairmont State are expected
to do so outside of work hours. If it is impossible for an employee to obtain a desired
course outside of work hours, the head of the unit may authorize absence from work
to attend no more than two classes (maximum of six clock hours per week) if the work
can be covered in some other manner. When an employee enrolls in courses requiring
greater than six clock hours during the work week, these additional hours must be
either charged to the employee’s annual leave or made up preferably during the same
work week they are used, or a combination of both. Each supervisor has the authority
to determine other conditions under which requests for class attendance will be approved
and has the responsibility to apply these conditions consistently within their work
unit, keeping in mind that the needs of the work unit must take precedence over class
attendance.
Yes. It is recommended that you speak with HR for guidance.
Annual/Sick leave is not included in the computation of overtime. If someone takes
a vacation day (7.5 hours) on Monday and then works Tuesday – Friday, they will be
paid a total of 37.5 hours for the week. (30 hours worked and 7.5 hours vacation).
If the employee is then asked to work 4 hours on Saturday, the breakdown could happen
a couple of ways. a. (7.5 vacation, 30 worked, 4 hours straight comp time) b. (7.5
vacation, 30 worked, 4 hours paid at the straight rate).
The work week begins on Saturday and ends on Friday.
Yes, employees must obtain approval from their supervisor before working any overtime.
This includes all hours over 37.5 in the work week.
No, the Fair Labor Standards Act clearly defines a work week as a regularly reoccurring
period of seven consecutive workdays. Any hour over 37.5 that occurs in the work week
must be paid (via overtime pay or compensatory time) within that same week.
Overtime is calculated on actual hours worked, not hours paid. Vacation, Sick Leave,
and Holidays count as hours paid not actual hours worked, so this would be why one
would not receive overtime in a week in which your paid hours exceeded 37.5, but your
actual worked hours did not.
Due to federal guidelines, an employee may not “opt-out” of receiving overtime compensation.
Yes, if the employee performs work for the University we are required to compensate
the employee regardless of the source of funding.
Management has the right to exercise control of when work is to be performed. Management
must enforce rules to control overtime. If employees work overtime after they have
been told they are prohibited from doing so, disciplinary steps must be followed to
ensure that the violation will not occur. Whether overtime has been approved or prohibited,
the employee must be compensated once overtime has been worked.
Your hourly rate of pay can be calculated by dividing your annual salary by 1950 hours.
Salary is not the only factor that determines exempt status. HR would have to conduct
a “duties test” to see if your job meets the FLSA “white collar” guidelines. We will
also need to make sure that your job falls in line with internal factors that we have
established.
The Department of Labor Regulations state that an employee must be paid at 1 ½ times
their regular hourly rate for any overtime that occurs after an employee has reached
240 hours of compensatory time.
All non-exempt employees must be compensated for all hours worked in their regular
job.
