One employee in two positions working more than 40 hours means overtime

Q         Our school administration has an employee who works as a paraprofessional 32.5 hours per week and as a bus driver 20 hours per week. Can we separate her job into two positions that would require 40 hours of work for each position before overtime is paid? Currently, we are paying her 12.5 hours of overtime per week as blended pay.

A   No, you cannot treat the two positions as separate jobs each requiring 40 hours of work before overtime is owed. You will owe her overtime for the 12.5 hours she worked in excess of 40 for the week, and there are two permissible methods of computing it.

The most common method is to apply a weighted average, or blended, rate. In your situation, let's assume the paraprofessional position pays $15 an hour and the bus driver position pays $12 an hour. The employee earns $487.50 a week as a paraprofessional and $240 a week as a bus driver, so her total weekly base pay is $727.50. Her average hourly rate is $13.86 ($727.50 ÷ 52.5 hours), which makes the overtime premium $6.93 (.5 x $13.86). In addition to the $727.50 in weekly base pay, she must be paid $86.63 (12.5 hours of overtime x $6.93) in overtime, for a total weekly pay of $814.13.