An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 6 – Wage And Hour Laws

calculating the regular rate of pay using the method in Alvarado .

a. Examples Of Overtime Calculation The following are examples of how to calculate the regular rate of pay for non-exempt employees: If the employee is paid on an hourly basis without any additional forms of compensation, the employee’s hourly base rate is their regular rate of pay. For example, if an employee earns $15.00 per hour and received no other forms of pay, his regular rate is $15.00. If this employee works 44 hours in a week, and does not exceed 8 hours in any workday, he is paid $15.00 for the first 40 hours and $15.00 x 1-1/2 or $22.50 for the hours over 40: 40 hours x $15 = $ 600

4 overtime hours x ($15 x 1-1/2) = 4 x $22.50 = $90 $600 + $90 = $690 = total compensation for the week or 44 hours x $15 = $ 660 4 overtime hours x ($15 x 1/2) = 4 x $7.50 = $30 $660 + $30 = $690 = total compensation for the week

If the employee receives additional ”flat sum” bonuses, the additional bonuses must be included in the employee’s regular rate (unless specifically excluded by law). For example, a non-exempt employee who makes $15.00 per hour is paid an additional $44.00 per week in bilingual pay for speaking a second language. If the employee worked 44 hours during the workweek, the regular rate calculation looks like this: Hourly rate is $15 per hour Bilingual pay is $44 per week $44 bilingual pay / 40 hours = $1.10 bilingual pay rate $15 hourly rate + $1.10 bilingual pay rate = $16.10 regular rate of pay The calculation for total compensation then goes like this: 40 hours x $16.10 = $644

4 overtime hours x ($16.10 x 1-1/2) = $96.60 $644 + $96.60 = $740.60 total compensation

In the example above, the employee received additional compensation for bilingual pay in the form of an additional $44 per week. Since the additional compensation is a bonus that is paid as a flat sum, the regular rate is determined by dividing the bonus by the maximum regular hours worked during the period to which the bonus applies (not by the total number of hours worked). 725 This follows the method described in Alvarado v. Dart Container Corporation .

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 190