Q What is a workweek? Is it just our hours of operation? A workweek is not the same thing as your hours of operation. Rather, it defines the 168-hour period (i.e., seven 24-hour days) in which you track your non-exempt employees’ time to determine whether they’re owed any overtime premium pay.
The workweek can start and end whenever you would like (e.g., Saturday at midnight or Tuesday at noon), but it should change rarely, if ever. Changing it to avoid paying overtime would violate the Fair Labor Standards Act and could lead to wage complaints.
Q An employee worked unauthorized overtime. Do we have to pay them the time and a half for these hours?Yes. Any overtime worked by non-exempt employees must be compensated, regardless of whether the overtime was authorized. We recommend communicating with the employee about work expectations outside of their scheduled workday, making it clear that the company does not expect or permit employees to work unauthorized time and that working without permission is subject to disciplinary action.
Assuming you have a policy that requires overtime be authorized ahead of time, you can (and should) discipline employees for working unauthorized overtime, just as you would for any other violation of your policy. An oral or written warning may suffice for the first offense. Repeated offenses may warrant further corrective action, up to and including termination.
Q When can we deduct from an exempt employee’s pay? In general, if an exempt...
A nursing home run by the family of Kim Keon-hee lost the first trial in a lawsuit seeking to cancel the National Health Insurance Service's disposition to claw back about 1.4 billion won in long-...