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Fair Labor Standards Act

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards affecting employees in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments. The University complies with the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and applicable State laws governing minimum wage and overtime pay. Human Resource Services (HRS) Compensation team determines “exempt” or “non-exempt” status for positions in accordance with FLSA guidelines. Questions regarding exempt/non-exempt status should be directed to the HRS Compensation team.

Employment FLSA Status Defined

1. “Exempt” employees primarily perform work that is not subject to overtime. Exemption from both minimum wage and overtime pay for employees employed as executive, administrative, or professional. Overtime pay is not required under FLSA, but these employees must meet the salary threshold.
2.  “Non-exempt” employees are subject to wage and hour provisions. Under the FLSA, non-exempt employees must be paid:
   1. At least the federal minimum wage, and
   2. FLSA overtime, which consists of time-and-a-half (1.5) the employee’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked more than 40 in a standard workweek.
   3. Public universities or colleges that qualify as a “public agency” under the FLSA may compensate non-exempt employees with compensatory time off (or “comp time”) in lieu of overtime pay. Overtime can be earned at time-and-a-half at the end of the workweek when the total number of hours recorded as worked exceeds 40 in one workweek. Overtime and Federal Compensatory Time (banked overtime) does not expire.

Workweek

The University of Texas at El Paso standard workweek begins at 12:01 a.m. Monday and ends at midnight the following Sunday. Some employees may follow an alternate work schedule, which must be approved by the respective Vice President. Departments must maintain adequate records of all hours worked.

It is the University's intent to schedule work activities during the standard 40-hour workweek. However, to meet customer and business needs, it may be necessary for both exempt and non-exempt employees to work more than those hours. When this is necessary, Department heads will provide as much notice as possible to the employee's required to work. For non-exempt employees, only hours worked will be used in the calculation of FLSA overtime/compensatory time. Holidays, vacation time, sick time, and severe weather days will not be used in the calculation of FLSA Overtime/Compensatory Time.

Authorization to work more than the standard 40-hour workweek must be obtained in advance from the respective Department head.

Straight and Overtime Compensatory Calculations

• Straight time is accrued on a “straight” time basis, which means one hour earned for one hour reported. When a non-exempt employee does not work more than forty (40) hours in a workweek, but the number of hours worked plus the number of hours requested such as holiday, sick, vacation, military or other paid leave taken during the workweek exceeds forty (40) hours, the employee is entitled to straight compensatory time.

Example: Jane works Monday through Wednesday 8 hours per day. On Thursday, she takes a vacation day for 8 hours. On Friday, she works 10 hours. The total time for the week is 42 hours worked. 2 hours will be granted as straight compensatory time.

• Overtime for non-exempt employees is time worked that exceeds 40 hours in a workweek. Hours are calculated at 1.5 times the hours worked.

Example: John works Monday through Thursday 8 hours. On Friday, he works 10 hours. The total time for the week is 42 hours worked. The additional two hours worked would be considered as overtime.  3 hours will be granted as overtime (2 x 1.5 = 3).

• Upon termination, an employee must be paid for unused overtime compensatory time calculated at the employee’s final regular rate of pay or the overtime rate of pay.

Holiday Compensatory Time

Employees regardless of FLSA status, are eligible for Holiday Compensatory Time if the employee works on a university observed national or state holiday. Holiday compensatory time is earned at “straight" time, or one hour for one hour and must be used within the 12-month period following the workweek in which it was accrued. Unused balances are to be lapsed 12 months after the end of the workweek in which the compensatory time was accrued or at the end of employment with the University, whichever occurs first, without compensation.

Overtime and Travel for Official University Business (Non-Exempt Employees)

• Time spent working may be counted as work time.
• If a non-exempt employee travels during their normal scheduled work time, regardless of the day of the week, they may count it as work time.
• If a non-exempt employee travels outside of their regular shift time, they cannot count it as work time, unless they are driving.
• If a non-exempt employee attends non-required “after hour” or social events at a conference they may not count that time as work time.

Example: if an employee regularly works 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, travel time during these hours is considered work time whether it occurs on a weekday, Saturday, or Sunday. Time spent traveling outside of regular work hours is not considered work time.

Compensatory Time Maximums:

• Non-exempt employees may not accrue more than 240 hours of compensatory time (160 hours of overtime work x 1.5 = 240 hours).
• Employees engaged in public safety or emergency response may not accrue more than 480 hours of compensatory time. Since compensatory time is accumulated at time-and-a-half (1.5), this is 320 hours of actual overtime work (320 hours of overtime work x 1.5 = 480 hours).

If a non-exempt employee's compensatory time balance exceeds the accumulation limits of 240 or 480 hours, the employee must be paid for any hours over the limit at time-and-a-half (1.5) the employee's regular rate of pay.

Employee Responsibilities

• Employees should promptly and accurately record all time worked, use of paid time off, paid holiday time and the use of state compensatory time.
• Employees must account for time on a weekly basis through the University’s timekeeping system.
• The employee shall request the use of sick, vacation or compensatory leave time through the University’s leave request system for their supervisor’s approval.
• Employees are required to give reasonable advance notice when taking this compensatory time; however, employees do not have to specify the reason for the request.

Supervisor and Department Responsibilities

• The supervisor must review all submitted timesheets on a weekly basis.
• The supervisor must review the use of sick, vacation or compensatory leave time, and verify that the employee has accurately recorded the use of their time.