KEEPING WEEKLY RECORDS -WHILE-PAYING MONTHLY SALARIES

If there is one major problem in implementing the minimum wage-hour law, it is how to keep weekly work and pay records while continuing to pay employees a fixed monthly salary.

Some officials, particularly in smaller communities, seem to think that because they have been paying salaries on a monthly basis the law does not apply to them. That is wrong. The minimum wage law applies to every public employer regardless of how he pays wages. Municipalities paying once a month must still meet the minimum hourly wage, they must pay overtime when it becomes applicable, and they must keep weekly records of hours actually worked.

Other officials apparently believe that the law requires them to pay employees on an hourly basis. This is also incorrect. Under the act employees can be paid by the hour, by the week, by the month or by any method which is mutually agreeable. However, unless they always work the same number of hours, they will not receive a fixed amount each payday.

The big problem—regardless of how employees are paid—is that the employer must establish an hourly equivalent to the monthly or other wage. That monthly equivalent must be at least $2 per hour or a minimum of $346.66 per month based on a 40-hour work week.

There is no way for the employer to avoid establishing an hourly equivalent for each job covered by the law. Nor is there any way for an employer to avoid keeping weekly records of the number of hours worked and the rate per hour which the employee receives for each hour worked.

There are two obvious reasons for requiring that wages be converted to hourly equivalents. First, the only way to adequately determine that the employee is receiving the minimum wage is to reduce his earnings to their hourly equivalent. Second, this is the only rate which determines how much the employee will receive for overtime whenever he works more than 40 hours in any work week. If the employee works more than 40 hours in a work week, he receives one and one-half his regular hourly rate of pay for each hour worked.

There are some officials who do not want to be bothered with computing hourly wages and keeping weekly work records. They would prefer just to give the employees a raise and continue to work the employee a 44- or 48-hour week just as they have been doing. This kind of approach will not work. If you raise the employee's monthly wage, all you do is increase his hourly equivalent wage. You will still have to keep work records by the week. You will still have to pay the employee one and one-half times his hourly wage for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week.

If the employee generally never works more than his assigned 40 or 44 hours per week, you may continue to pay him monthly or semimonthly. Your weekly records must show the hours worked each week and the overtime paid where applicable. In any pay period in which the employee works more than his normal 40 or 44 hours, his paycheck must be increased to show the extra compensation. In any pay period where the employee works less than his regular 40 or 44 hours, his check should be reduced by the number of hours not worked.

One problem with this method is that the employee never will receive in any pay period the amount of money actually earned. Part of the time he will have earned more than he is paid. Part of the time he will have earned less. But over the period of one year, using this method, the employee will receive exactly what is due him.

Illinois Parks and Recreation 9 September/October, 1975