Can someone clear up a question for me as I can't find info anywhere on the internet. What is the 'correct' way to calculate overtime for an employee paid hourly and on a semimonthly basis in Texas?

My understanding is if there is 11 days in the pay period beginning on the 1st and ending on the 15th... paychecks issued on the 20th... that if an employee worked a total of 90 hours during those 11 working days then 88 hours would be straight time and the remaining 2 hours would be paid overtime at time and a half. We don't differentiate between 40 hour weeks because semimonthly always spans either 15 or 16 days depending on the month worked. Some pay periods have 10 working days (80 hours), some have 11 (88 hours) and some have 12 days (96 hours). During those periods any hours worked over the 80, 88 or 96 is considered overtime and paid.

Is this correct?
Is there documentation explaining this?

Here is my specific example:
Our pay period was from May 16th through May 31st and we got our checks on the 1st of June. According to our billing department our work week starts on the first day of the pay period and goes 7 days whereas you are paid overtime for hours over 40. This also applies to the next workweek; HOWEVER, my concern/confusion lies in the fact that there are 2 days left over in this particular example pay period AND they are paying us OT for anything over 8 hrs for those days (even though they do not fall within a 40 work week). Should these days be paid as full overtime? We are hourly but paid on the 1st and 16th. Some pay periods only have one additional day in it but others have 2...PLEASE HELP! THANK YOU!!

In addition, to the example above, I worked 103 hours and only received 7.85 hours overtime, how is that possible.

OK, here's the problem with what your employer is doing. The "work week" is a consecutive 168-hour period (not 40 hours worked). The "work week" must begin at a date/time certain and end 168 hours later; it cannot "fluctuate" to match the pay period beginning date.

So, even assuming that the work week started on May 16th (and I'm not agreeing that it does, but just for argument's sake), that means the last day of the work week was May 22st. If you worked more than 40 hours in that 7-day period, overtime at 1.5 times your regular rate of pay is due. The next work week starts May 23 and ends May 29. Same requirement.

The problem in this "pay period" is that, in order to pay you on June 1st, the company probably had to submit payroll no later than May 29th. Being that it takes at least a couple of days to prepare the payroll input, it's likely that they could not determine whether you were owed any overtime pay for the work week ending May 29th and meet their payroll input deadline.

OK, now comes the pay period that runs from June 1-June 15. And let's say you worked 4 hours of overtime in the work week that ended May 29. That is now due. The same calculation occurs for the work week of May 30-June 5, and for the work week of June 6 through June 12. Again, it is unlikely that the payroll department could process the time sheets and make the payroll input deadline for the checks dated June 16. Assuming they cannot (and I don't know how often you submit time sheets and for what period), the overtime due on your paycheck dated June 16 would be for the work weeks ending May 29 (because that is now determinable) and June 5. Any overtime from June 6-June 12 would be payable with the check for the pay period ending June 30, along with overtime for the pay period of June 13-19 and (most likely) June 20-26.

See where I'm going here? The key is the work week. It has to start on a certain day and end 168 hour later. Period.

Under federal rules, overtime is hours-worked-past-40-in-the-workweek. The pay period has nothing to do with the OT calculation. And semi-monthly is indeed complicated for overtime calcuations. Many employers stay with bi-weekly for that reason.

In the below example, the red area is the current pay period. There are 11 work days in the pay period. Even though 90 hours were worked in the pay period, there is no overtime worked affecting the current pay period under the federal rules. (Some states have daily overtime rules).

I am not claiming that the below example is your exact situation. You did not provide enough information to answer your question as stated.

6-6-8-10-10-0-0
8-8-8-8-8-0-0
8-8-8-10-10-0-0

In addition, to the example above, I worked 103 hours and only received 7.85 hours overtime, how is that possible.

That is a tricky one, lets say there were 2 extra days on that pay period, you take 103 hours, and minus the 7.85 hours overtime which probably fell on one of those work weeks, then you minus 16 hours for the two extra days on the pay period, and that leaves 79.15 hours, it is not 80, so I wonder if you were late one day, or left early?? This is only a guess and a puzzle at that!

80-regular hours
7.85-overtime hours
16-two extra days on the pay period,but not overtime according to the work week.
-----------------------
103.85 (which means that you left early .85 hours or were late, for this to work out. It was the closest I could get to explaining the 103 hours but only 7.85 hours overtime.

I guess I took to long trying to figure this one out lol!

I see I am way too late to provide the answer (been done), but this is why I hate, gouge my eye out with a spoon, semi-monthly payroll for non-exempts.

DAW, didn't you comment that you like it?

I personally like semi-monthly payrolls, but I have always worked for large enough employers that we had automated time accounting systems that could be taught how to do all of the heavy lifting related to overtime. It was always worth my effort to teach the time accounting system to roll over and fetch. Take manual overtime calculations off the table, and SM payrolls are arguably the best way to go (other then monthly payrolls, which are mostly illegal under state law).

However, leave manual overtime calcuations as an issue, and then bi-weekly payroll becomes the next best choice. For companies who are too small to have automated time accounting systems, or have not taught their automated time accounting systems to "think overtime", bi-weekly is very attractive.

I personally like semi-monthly payrolls, but I have always worked for large enough employers that we had automated time accounting systems that could be taught how to do all of the heavy lifting related to overtime. It was always worth my effort to teach the time accounting system to roll over and fetch. Take manual overtime calculations off the table, and SM payrolls are arguably the best way to go (other then monthly payrolls, which are mostly illegal under state law).

However, leave manual overtime calcuations as an issue, and then bi-weekly payroll becomes the next best choice. For companies who are too small to have automated time accounting systems, or have not taught their automated time accounting systems to "think overtime", bi-weekly is very attractive.

DAW, did I do my figuring right? This was a hard puzzle to solve for me lol!

DAW, did I do my figuring right? This was a hard puzzle to solve for me lol!

I didn't recheck your math. I have been doing too much math today and am pretty much "math'd out".

So is this illegal how they are currently processing the overtime?

If you are asking me, I am going to stand by my earlier statement that "you did not provide enough information to answer your question as stated". I am not smart enough to do a weekly OT calcuation without someone actually providing the weekly time worked (you did not). The whole reason I made a point of making a four week chart in my example with the semi-monthly pay period separetely highlited (in red) was that is the only way I know to calcuate weekly OT.

CLLP, it would be in your best interest to let us know the daily hours worked for that certain pay period, then we will have more knowledge, do you have a copy of your time card, or records of that. It would be impossible to answer without these daily hours, so sorry!!

Did I spend 20 minutes on that response for nothing? :mad:

Did I spend 20 minutes on that response for nothing? :mad:

I guess CLLP did not get it (sorry Pattymd).

Did I spend 20 minutes on that response for nothing? :mad:

I liked it. Save it and recycle it. Maybe the next person will read it.

Patty, you have been doing this for a while now. You do not really expect all of the OP to actually read the answers, now, do you? Particularly when the OP is perhaps looking for a very specific answer that you do not seem to want to provide?

I figure maybe 2 in 3 (tops) of my answers actually get read.