Overtime 40 hours or 80 hours??? Illinois

[DAW]

Then overtime is correctly calculated at over 40 in a week.

However, your employer may, quite legally, adjust your schedule so that your pay for the two weeks is the same as if you didn't work overtime at all.

Good point. Under FLSA all employees have a "workweek" which is intended to fixed and unchanged. It is legally unrelated to shifts and schedules. In theory employers can have different workweeks for each employee. In practice this is mechcancially very difficult to manage and most employers have a single workweek for all employees. My last four employers all used a workweek ending Sunday midnight even though none of our shifts/schedules ended then. Under federal law, the workweek stays put even if the shifts/schedules get moved around. And as long as the workweek stays fixed and unchanging employer legally can and do arrange their shifts/schedules to minimize the OT calculation.

If you do not know what your workweek is, and you cannot assume that it has anything to do with your shift/schedule, ask payroll. They should know.
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs23.pdf

No state can make federal rules go away, but states can have their own rules in addition to the federal rules. Your state is not one of the few states known for having significantly different rules from the federal FLSA rules.

[Betty3]

OP, you might want to see if one of DAW's exceptions "might" apply & answer his questions.

[cbg]

Then overtime is correctly calculated at over 40 in a week.

However, your employer may, quite legally, adjust your schedule so that your pay for the two weeks is the same as if you didn't work overtime at all.

[DAW]

When someone says something about an 80-hour overtime exception, the obvious exception is specific to the hospital (and related industries). That particular exception does not apply to retail.

So lets back up and start at the beginning. The federal law talking about overtime after 40 hours worked in the workweek is called FLSA. That law mostly discusses the rules for minimum wage and overtime (also chlld labor). There are something 100 or so Exempt classification exception to MW, OT or both. If somone falls under one of these exceptions, they are refered to as Exempt and the normal MW/OT rules are changed as specified in the exception. We have just eliminated the hospital exception with it's 80-hour rule because you work retail. One rule down, 99 (more or less) to go.

If you are actually selling retail, meaning physically in a retail establishment and selling stuff then the normal MW/OT rules generally apply. The one possibible exception is called the Retail/Service Establishment exception (alternatively the "7(i)" exception). Should the employer choose to use that exception the MW rules stay in place, but the normal OT rules are replaced with a lot more complicated commission based calculation which generally pays the employee more then the normal OT rules would have. Not exactly a free lunch for the employer. But there is no mention of an 80-hour OT rule related to retail.

If however you are some kind of office worker, manager or supervisor who just happens to be working for a retail company, then then one of the so-called White Collar exceptions is a possibility.

Exactly what are your job duties? Do you supervise anyone? Do you have advanced degrees related to your job?

[EyeGore22]

it is in retail.

[ElleMD]

What industry? It makes a difference.

[EyeGore22]

I was wondering I get paid bi-weekly and my employer will not pay overtime unless you work over 80 hours. could anyone clear me up on what the law is cause i thought it was anything over 40 hours for that week.