My boss started a new policy where overtime pay is taken away if you use vacation or sick leave. Is this lega

If I have 8 hours of overtime, and I take a vactaion day in the same pay period, I get 80 hrs regular pay and 8 hours vacation pay. We are on a two week pay period. Is this legal? Do you think it is morally OK? By the way, I live in TX.

Yes it is totally legal in all 50 states and is the common policy in every company I know of, large and small.
I understand the point of it. Overtime is defined as "worked" hours, above 40 hours that u have worked. Sick leave, vacation days, holidays or personal days are not "worked" hours. They are hours given to us. The way it works is, given or earned hours cannot put u into overtime, because they are not worked hours.
If you work, say 88 hours in a two week period, then have a holiday in it as well, giving you 96 hours, then u will get paid for the 8 hours of overtime, once again, by federal law in all 50 states, but only if you actually work the regular and overtime hours. great question!

In theory, any time you work outside your schedule, that time is overtime. It would be wrong to convert that time to straight time simply because you took some other paid leave, that you are entitled to take, during the same pay period. However, it's state law that dictates what can and cannot be done. You need to ask the state's labor department.

seems legal to me. why should he pay overtime when you only worked 80 hours?

I dont know about the legality of it, but its morally ok to me.

Why should you get time and a half if you weren't there for more than 80 hours in a two week period?

And why wouldn't you do this as often as possible if it were the other way around (you received pay even though 8 hours of the work was vacation pay)? I would think this would be more morally questionable than what you're describing.

What he's doing makes perfect sense to me and is quite ok in my book

In short, NO. If you work more than 80 hours in a 2 week period, you are entitled to overtime (time and a half). Your vacation or sick leave is totally separate and has nothing to do with overtme. This is a Federal labor law and he is depriving you of your pay.

Straight out, it's hard to know if what he's doing is legal in TX because most of us don't live at TX and at that, a lawyer. But I can explain what I know about labour law here I live which is Ontario, Canada

The rules for overtime here depend on the type of worker you are and how you are paid. I am an engineer and we are considered "professionals" and are on salary. The rules are that our employers can instruct us to work a certain amount of UNPAID overtime in a given week. For instance, if the company has a 37.5 work week, my manager can instruct me to work, say, 40 or 42 hours without paying me over time for the few extra hours. It's because under the labour law here, that's permitted. But if it continues for weeks or even months, then the labour paw stipulates I must be compensated, either in paid overtime or time off or stock options or a bonus of some financial type. As well, if the compensation is overtime is not at "time and half", it can just be striaght time. This is all because as professionals, we are on salary (and a good one compared to others), plus we get all kinds of benefits and other perks. But that doesn't mean the employer can abuse us by forcing us to work all kinds of unpaid overtime. It can only be modest amount and from time to time.

For wage earners, the rules are very different. If they work just one hour of overtime, they must be paid and at "time and half". it's because wage earners are low paid to begin with and often don't have benefits. If they miss a shift, they don't get paid. That's it, that's all.

Now, it sounds like you're somewhere in between. You have benefits such as sick leave. But you're not a well paid professional either. One point I will say is that if you take a sick day the same week you work overtime, well, you should sacrifice the overtime. It's not altogether fair to the employer to charge him extra one week when you took time off. In this case, I'd side with your manager. So long as the sick time and overtime are in the same work week.

I'll give you an example that I disagree with and was probably illegal. I used to work as a lifeguard on this beach. One summer, the new head guard instituted a "bank" for overtime. If one week you worked overtime, those hours were banked instead of you getting paid overtime at time and half. Then another week, if the weather was bad, she'd send you home or tell you not to come in and then pay you out of your "bank". She did this as a way to save money and impress her manager. That was illegal because we were on wage, not salary. As well, I found it really petty. BTW, if she worked overtime, she got "time and half". Hypocrite!!

The only way to be sure of the answer to this question is to ask the labor board there in Texas. One quick phone call and you'll know.

Overtime is only paid for WORK over a certain number of hours. When you use vacation time you are decreasing the amount of hours you WORKED. You shouldn't expect overtime if you haven't physically worked over 40 hours in a week. I worked for an outsourced hr company and employees used to always think they could get overtime if they woorked extra one day, but took vacation later on in the week. maybe it varies by state, but here in florida, you did not receive overtime unless you physically work over your scheduled hours for the week.

It comes down to the fact that leave (sick leave, vacation leave) can not be used to exceed your scheduled hours, it can only be used to meet your scheduled hours. So if you worked 3 extra hours on day and call in sick on the last day, you would only use 5 hours of sick leave, not 8, because sick leave could not be used to exceed the 40 hours. in the situation you described, you wouldnt have used any leave time for your day off because it would have exceeded 80 hours, and you would be able to keep those 8 hours of leave.

Then it seems your employer pays overtime over 40, and you are being paid for your vacation time at your request due to taking a vacation day insted of working.

yes it is legal. It sure does suck though. A lot of places don't give you overtime pay unless you have 80 hours actually worked.

It is legal, but next time you are ready.

Never work overtime when taking vacation or sick time.

Yes, ordinarily PTO will not be counted towards overtime pay in the same pay period. This is up to the discretion of the employer( in Texas), and should be in the company policy or employee handbook.
It is not a Federal standard as in the Fair Standards labor Act.

yes legal, every company stick to its rules.
U can oppose only thru unions.

lol thats hilariously not cool!!! what a jerk... u earn all that stuff overtime, sick and vacation... what a jerk... go online to an ask a lawyers website or something, and do some research on it... if u can file a suit!!! Goo for it!! Good luck!

What a scoundrel!! If you work overtime you get paid for overtime. You have an certain holiday allocation and you take that holiday allocation. They are not interchangeable for your boss's benefit - he sounds like he is tight, tight, tight. In not legal and it's not on!!!

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