Can an employer require someone to work every weekend in addition to there 40 hour work week?
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Can an employer require someone to work every weekend in addition to there 40 hour work week?
My boss wants me to come into work and do additional work every weekend in addition to working a 40 hour work week. There are individuals that are already working the weekend in another department that can do the work (they are not working 7 days).
Asked on December 6, 2011 under Employment Labor Law, New York
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
If you have an employment contract (including a union agreement) limiting the hours you work, that can be enforced. Otherwise, your employer may force to you work on weekends and/or more than 40 hours per week.
If you are an hourly/wage employee, you must be paid for all hours worked, including overtime for hours over 40 in a week.
If you are salaried but not exampt from overtime (a few salaried people are not--being salaried does not by itself make you exempt; go to the Department of Labor website for the tests for when one is exempt or not), then for hours worked past 40 in a week:
1) figure out your effective hourly rate, by dividing weekly salary by number of hours worked;
2) For the hours past 40, you get an amount equal to 50% of your effectively hourly rate for each over over 40--that's the overtime premium you get if you are salaried by not exempt.
But if you are salaried and exempt from overtime, your employer does not need to pay you anything more or extra to work on weekends or more than 40 hours in a week. Salaried, exempt staff can be made to work any number of hours without extra pay.
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