Yes, OP, it would be illegal to do otherwise which is why your payroll service will do it automatically.

Anonymous wrote:umm, my nanny is salaried. She gets so much a week no matter whether her bus is late or she is off because we at the doctor or out of town. This salary is based on an hourly wage (19 an hour) and her hours are set 8-4. But If she stays till 5:00 once a month I'm not paying time and a half. If she comes to work at 8:30 because she was stuck in traffic, I'm still paying her the same weekly rate. I don't see how this is illegal. My husband doesn't get overtime.

No, your nanny has guaranteed hours. You pay her for 40 hours a week regardless of whether you have chosen not to use her services.

Legally, nannies are supposed to be paid for every minute worked. There are apps for tracking hours. However, many families and nannies agree to "let it go" because after tracking hours they discover that Nanny was a total of 2.5 hours late over the course of a month, and parents were a total of 2.75 hours late during the same month. The issue comes in when one side or the other starts adding up a lot of "late" time that stops balancing out.

Anonymous wrote:umm, my nanny is salaried. She gets so much a week no matter whether her bus is late or she is off because we at the doctor or out of town. This salary is based on an hourly wage (19 an hour) and her hours are set 8-4. But If she stays till 5:00 once a month I'm not paying time and a half. If she comes to work at 8:30 because she was stuck in traffic, I'm still paying her the same weekly rate. I don't see how this is illegal. My husband doesn't get overtime.

It just is illegal based on the kind of employee she is as determined by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. But, if you're both happy with the arrangement, then go for it. I'm honestly not even sure "bonuses" are truly legal for nannies because they can also be used to get around overtime rules (pay your nanny minimum wage and time-and-a-half for overtime to keep the overtime rate low, and then give a "bonus" at the end of each month to make up the difference in a higher hourly rate that covers all the hours).

As for the payroll company, you need to call them. If it's one set up specifically for nannies, it may already include the nanny overtime rules, but lot of the payroll companies (like GTM) can be used to pay all kinds of employees, some of whom are entitled to overtime and some of whom are not (like business consultants). In that case, the employer may need to let the payroll company know which kind of employer they are dealing with.

umm, my nanny is salaried. She gets so much a week no matter whether her bus is late or she is off because we at the doctor or out of town. This salary is based on an hourly wage (19 an hour) and her hours are set 8-4. But If she stays till 5:00 once a month I'm not paying time and a half. If she comes to work at 8:30 because she was stuck in traffic, I'm still paying her the same weekly rate. I don't see how this is illegal. My husband doesn't get overtime.

I believe that most payroll services will do the overtime calculations, assuming you plug in the hours.

Any reputable agency will advise you that legally you are required to pay overtime for any hours beyond 40.

If you write a check separately for those hours you can dodge that aspect of it and just run the risk of being caught if the nanny declares the income or either of you get audited, or the nanny quits under unpleasant circumstances and files a claim against you.

Our payroll service automatically computes weekly overtime. It is my understanding that it is illegal to do otherwise.


BTW - your nanny can't decide that she doesn't want overtime or that she doesn't want minimum wage if you are paying legally.

About once a month, our nanny will work more than 40 hours a week. We use a payroll service for her. On the weeks where she exceeds 40 hours, will the payroll service automatically give her time and a half? She has said that she doesn't mind working the infrequent 40+ hour weeks with her regular hourly rate.