Overtime rate is a calculation of hours worked by a worker that exceed those hours defined for a standard

workweek The weekdays and weekend are the complementary parts of the week devoted to labour and rest, respectively. The legal weekdays (British English), or workweek (American English), is the part of the seven-day week devoted to working. In most of t ...

. This rate can have different meanings in different countries and jurisdictions, depending on how that jurisdiction's

labor law Labour laws (also known as labor laws or employment laws) are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee ...

defines

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

. In many jurisdictions, additional pay is mandated for certain classes of workers when this set number of hours is exceeded. In others, there is no concept of a standard workweek or analogous time period, and no additional pay for exceeding a set number of hours within that week. The overtime rate calculates the

ratio In mathematics, a ratio shows how many times one number contains another. For example, if there are eight oranges and six lemons in a bowl of fruit, then the ratio of oranges to lemons is eight to six (that is, 8:6, which is equivalent to the ...

between employee

with the regular hours in a specific time period. Even if the work is planned or scheduled, it can still be considered overtime if it exceeds what is considered the standard workweek in that jurisdiction. A high overtime rate is a good indicator of a temporary or permanent high workload, and can be a contentious issue in

labor-management relations Industrial relations or employment relations is the multidisciplinary academic field that studies the employment relationship; that is, the complex interrelations between employers and employees, labor/trade unions, employer organizations, ...

. It could result in a higher illness rate, lower safety rate, higher labor costs, and lower

productivity Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...

United States

In the United States a standard workweek is considered to be 40 hours. Most waged employees or so-called non-exempt workers under U.S. federal labor and tax law must be paid at a wage rate of 150% of their regular hourly rate for hours that exceed 40 in a week. The start of the pay week can be defined by the employer, and need not be a standard calendar week start (e.g., Sunday midnight). Many employees, especially

shift work Shift work is an employment practice designed to make use of, or provide service across, all 24 hours of the clock each day of the week (often abbreviated as '' 24/7''). The practice typically sees the day divided into shifts, set periods of ...

ers in the U.S., have some amount of overtime built into their schedules so that 24/7 coverage can be obtained.

Formula

\textstyle \times 100 \%

References

External links

The Death of Overtime
by

Nick Hanauer Nicolas Joseph Hanauer (born September 2, 1959) is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Business career Hanauer was born to a secular Jewish family in New York City and raised in Bellevue, Washington. His brother is Adrian Hanauer, ...

{{Employment Working time Human resource management Metrics Labor rights Labor relations Labor history Wages and salaries