Second Job for the Same Employer

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers have two kinds of employees:  Exempt and Non-Exempt.

  • Exempt employees are those who satisfy the FLSA’s salary basis test and either the executive, administrative, or professional duties test.  Exempt employees do not need to be paid overtime or compensatory time if they work over 40 hours in a week.
  • Everyone else is considered non-exempt and must earn compensatory time at one-and-a-half times their premium pay for hours over 40.
Example

Exempt position
Where an exempt employee takes a second job, the employee will earn two separate salaries (an overload pay) without any additional compensatory time being earned regardless of how much time is being worked in either position.

Non-exempt position
John works for UCA in a full-time, 40 hours-per-week nonexempt position in the finance department.  He gets the opportunity to work a second, 17 hours-per-week part-time job for UCA information technology department in the evenings.  It is a second, unrelated job with the same employer.  Since the employee is non-exempt in their primary job the hours worked in both jobs count towards overtime.

Who Pays for the Compensatory time?

∗ When the compensatory time is earned, it will go into the banner system to be used as leave/comp time.  The primary department will have to enter and approve the compensatory time earned and taken.  If it is to be paid out, rather than used, it will be paid out of the primary department’s budget.

Can Employees Waive Their Rights to Overtime?

∗ No!  The U.S. Supreme Court held that employers and employees could not agree to terms of payment that violate the FLSA.

For more information, visit Compensatory Time FAQ.