Two Wages

[Drystan]

can you be paid for two jobs from one employer? someone i know is paid as a manager for the weekend and a waitress on the week at alot lower pay can they do this?

[Baldwyn]

Randy,

Without knowing more of the specific facts/circumstances relating to your friends duties and responsibilities, I would offer the following general information that should give some guidance.

The short answer to your question is yes, an employee may perform two or more different types of work for the same employer.  The trick here is how to properly(legally) pay the employee.

The first issue that must be addressed is whether your friend is classified as an exempt or non-exempt employee under the applicable state and/or federal labor laws. The federal law is called the FLSA(Fair Labor Standards Act) and state laws vary, with some states such as California, New York, Massachusetts and Kentucky having wage and labor laws that are much more favorable for employees.  This classification will depending on your friend's "primary" job duties and responsibilities.  Exempt employees are those who fall under one of a number of specific exemptions(including "executive" and "administrative" - which may cover her work as a "manager" if her duties and salary meet the required tests) and are not required to be paid overtime wages. Non-exempt employees(including waitresses and most restaurant workers) are required to be paid overtime pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 per week. [*There are also specific rules that apply to how tips are accounted for and any pooling or sharing of tips among employees and managers].

Employees may not be classified as both exempt and non-exempt — they are only one or the other.

There is a U.S. Department of Labor opinion letter that addresses a case in which a non-exempt employee assumed exempt responsibilities, in addition to her regular job. The DOL said that the employee’s responsibilities should not be looked at as two different jobs—instead, the “character of the employee’s job as a whole” needed to be analyzed to see whether the entire position is exempt or non-exempt. The key is whether the employee’s “primary duty” consists of exempt work. If it does, the employee is exempt from the overtime pay requirements; if not, the employee is non-exempt and must be paid overtime wages. If the employee is non-exempt, overtime pay would due on any hours worked over 40 per workweek. If it turns out that both of her jobs are non-exempt but each job has its own straight-time hourly rate, the regular rate for each week is the weighted average of the hourly rates. That is, the earnings from all rates are added together and this total is then divided by the total number of hours worked at all jobs. In addition, the FLSA allows, under certain conditions, the computation of overtime pay based on 1.5 times the hourly rate in effect when the actual overtime work is performed.  

What this means is that employers must pay overtime to nonexempt employees for all hours worked over 40 in a single workweek, even if the employee is working two separate jobs. Examples of how overtime may be calculated: Weighted average of the different rates. The regular rate of an employee who works 35 hours per week at $15 per hour as a machine operator($525), and works 10 hours that same week at $7 per hour cutting the grass outside the plant($70), is $595 divided by 45 hours, or $13.22 per hour. Thus, the overtime rate for this employee is one and one-half times $13.22, or $19.83 per hour, regardless of which job the employee performs during the extra hours. OR

The employer and employee can agree, before the work is performed, that the overtime rate will be based on the regular rate that applies to the type of work performed during the hours in excess of 40. Therefore, if an employee spends 35 hours in a week working as a machine operator at $15 per hour, and five hours a week cutting the grass at $7 per hour, the overtime rate for any additional hours spent cutting the grass is $10.50 per hour, and the overtime rate for any additional hours spent working as a machine operator is $22.50. I realize this is likely more information than you expected, but as with many wage and hour / employment law situations, there are numerous issues that arise and the answers tend to be very dependent on the employee's specific facts and circumstances.  This information should at least provide you/your friend with some guidance.

Regards, Michael D. Lorehttp://www.overtime-flsa.com/