Dear HR,

Dear Mr. Careless Calculator,

Thank you for your question. A majority of employers are knowledgeable in regards to their responsibilities under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), particularly the provision to pay at least minimum wage and pay overtime for the number of hours worked above the given 40 hours in the workweek. This is applicable to a significant percentage of employees; however, this is omitted for those that fall under one of the different exemptions.

Unfortunately, not every employer is educated on how to compute overtime pay when the figure exceeds simply paying a base rate of time and a half. The difficulties of this can rapidly transform into a more intricate one, so employers must ensure that they’re performing the calculations correctly or they may risk violating FLSA laws.

To be transparent, some employers are actually oblivious to the provision of having to take into account the overtime computation beyond base pay. It can particularly become a burden when an employee’s pay is different every week because of factors such as commission, which starts to accumulate after set criteria are met.

In fact, not all employers are aware that the requirement to include things in the overtime calculation beyond base pay exists. This can get especially cumbersome when an employee’s pay changes every week due to things like commissions, which are earned after fixed criteria are met.

Read more about it here: Calculating Overtime Pay For Hourly Plus Commission Employees