I have a question about paying piece rate.

I know someone that works for a smaller company, his work involves installation of mechanical equipment. On some jobs he is paid hourly and other jobs he is paid piece rate. He is considered a regular full time employee, not a contractor. When he works hourly they forbid overtime. When he works on piece rate they make it impossible to not work overtime, but they never pay them overtime on piece rate. I have known him to work 50+ hours in a work week so that he will actually make a little money (very little).

I was wondering if it is legal for them to not pay overtime and if it isn't how would the overtime rate be calculated?

Thanks in advance~

This question is for Ohio

You need to read the following fact sheet in it's entirity, but I will cite the key paragraph.

http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs23.pdf

Overtime Pay May Not Be Waived: 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.

Assuming, of course, that the employer is subject to the FLSA (almost all are).

In order to calculate the overtime rate for a piece rate worker, you must first calculate the employee's "regular rate." The regular rate is obtained by dividing the total weekly earnings by the total number of hours worked in that week. The employee is entitled to an additional one-half times this regular rate for each hour over 40, plus the full piecework earnings.

Example: An employee paid on a piecework basis works 45 hours in a week and earns $450 straight-time pay. The "regular rate" of pay for that week is $10.00 per hour ($450 divided by 45). In addition to this straight-time pay, the employee is also entitled to $5.00 (half the regular rate) for each hour over 40 (an additional $25.00 for the 5 overtime hours), for a total of $475.00 for the week ($450 + $25.00).

Another way to compensate pieceworkers for overtime (if agreed to before the work is performed) is to pay one and one-half times the piece rate for each piece produced during the overtime hours. From my experience, this method is rarely used, however, as the recordkeeping requirements for employer and employee are more burdensome.