We are working nights in Oregon and work 36 hours one week and 48 hours the following week. The way our employer has set up the work week the night shift is not getting paid overtime on the weeks we are working 48 hours because they are requiring us to split the shift into two separate work weeks allowing our last shift to be split between Saturday night and Sunday morning thus not totaling more than 40 hours in one week. If we worked the exact same shifts on days we would be getting paid OT which in fact the day shift does. The reason the night shift does not get OT is because of where the employer has chosen to randomonally end our work week. The day shift has the exact same job, exact same responsibilties its just they are not being affected by the roll over of the work week. Do we have any legal recourse? Are they legally required to pay us OT to make it equal pay?

Night shift does get paid a differential for working nights however the day shift also gets the differential for a couple of hours of their shift as well as they work early in the morning. The night shift differential should not make up for the fact that we are not getting paid OT! My other question is does our OT get calculated based on our base pay or based on our pay w/ the differential? Thanks for any help!

Any hours worked over 40 in a "workweek" must be paid at 1 1/2 times the employee's regular rate.

If overtime is worked, the combined value of base pay plus shift premium is used to calculate time and half according to FLSA rules.

Not all employees have to have the same defined workweek. It's also possible that all employees DO have the same defined workweek, it's just that when it ends falls such that overtime is not normally due.

When does the workweek start (day and time) for the night shift and what days/hours do you work each week?