OT for nanny share nanny

[Anonymous]

How does OT for a nanny share nanny work if only one family needs OT? Is it 1.5 times her usual rate even though it's only our family? I realized that I don't even know what her one-child rate is because we started out with her as a share. I could ask if that's what is typically done.

[Anonymous]

There is actually a labor department explainer sheet on this situation. You have a horizontal joint employment situation:
https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs35.htm

OT: "Under the FLSA, each of the joint employers must ensure that the employee receives all employment-related rights under the FLSA (including payment of at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime pay at not less than one and one-half the regular rate of pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek, unless an exception or exemption applies). Furthermore, joint employers must combine all of the hours worked by the employee in a workweek to determine if the employee worked more than 40 hours and is due overtime pay."

You can have multiple rates (one-child or two-child, for example), but nothing less than minimum wage, and all hours over 40 are 1.5x the applicable rate.

[Anonymous]

Does this mean if I use the nanny for 40 hours but the other family uses 50 hours I am responsible for overtime as well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does this mean if I use the nanny for 40 hours but the other family uses 50 hours I am responsible for overtime as well?

Yes. The nanny has worked 50 hours, and you are jointly responsible for that fact even though 10 hours wasn't "yours". You need to create a one child rate if she will ever be caring for just one child. OT is then defined as 1.5 x the blended average rate for that week. (So, for example, if one child rate is $15:hr and 2 child rate is $20/hr, in a week such as you described the nannies average hourly straight rate is $950/50 = &19/hr, so the OT is paid as $28.50/hr, or an additional $95 on top of the straight hourly rate. Conceptaully, that means you can't just declare the cheapest time is the OT and pay 1.5x that. The OT is holistic for the entire week.