OP the letter of the law is that OT applies only for actual hours worked, as pps have said. But in practice I find it pretty tough to explain to our nanny why sometimes she would get her hourly rate only if we ask her to work additional hours but it was a week with a holiday, or when she took some time off.

I have always just paid her OT rate for any additional time we request, regardless of whether she had technically worked a full 40 hours. (Although her standard work week is a 50 hour week so she would have had to have significant time off in the week to put her under the 40 hour mark.)

Legally, you would pay at straight time, until and unless she actually works over 40 hours in the week. And in your situation, since OT isn't built into her weekly pay, I see no issue with that. On the other hand, OT is built into my weekly pay and factored into my hourly rate. I would be highly irritated if my employer essentially docked my pay each week that I use a sick or vacation day. The entire benefit of paid time off is that you have a few days throughout the year to use for personal reasons in which your pay is not penalized. If it costs me money to use my PTO, its not really a benefit.

Anonymous wrote:Overtime is based on hours worked, not hours paid. Vacation, sick, and guaranteed hours don't count.

+1

Paid vacation, sick days, and snow days do not count towards her 40 hours. So if she usually works 44 hours a week but takes 1 sick day then you pay her sick day, and pay her at her normal hourly rate for the remaining 36 hours that she actually worked (I'm basing this off an 8 hour work day, obviously adjust the numbers as needed).

Overtime is based on hours worked, not hours paid. Vacation, sick, and guaranteed hours don't count.

Ok, I get that after 40 hours I paid time and a half. But, if my nanny takes a day off, whether for sick day, vacation, snow day, etc., such that her actual working hours are less than 40, then do we still pay the time and a half. For example, let's say that our nanny is scheduled to work her standard 40-hour work week, but we ask her to stay an extra 1/2 day (4 hours) (she only works 1/2 day on Wednesdays). If she didn't work Monday or Tuesday because of snow, vacation, sickness, etc., do we pay overtime or standard rate?

We pay for five sick days per year, but we've never been rigid about it, and have always paid if our nanny ends up needing more. We also pay snow days, and we leave it to our nanny's discretion as to whether she is able to come to work (i.e., we don't go by the federal govt schedule).

In the past, I've never really cared as this did not come up that frequently, but, this year, between snow days and our nanny being out sick, I don't think that our nanny has worked a full week since January. By the 5th snow day, we were paying for back-up babysitting, when possible, or aftercare at school, again, when possible, so I was a little frustrated last week when our nanny expected overtime for the four hours that she worked outside of her traditional schedule given that she only had worked one day that week.

That brings me back to my question: am I supposed to pay time and a half for any hours beyond our nanny's regular work schedule even if she actually is not working those hours?

Thanks.