- In Pennsylvania, employers must pay overtime to employees for all hours exceeding 40 in a particular week. Overtime pay is 1.5 times an employee's standard pay rate. Someone who makes $18 an hour and works 50 hours one week, for example, would have to receive $27 per hour for the final 10 hours. State laws make no mention of overtime pay based on hours in excess of a certain number per day.
- Pennsylvania overtime law coverage leaves out employees in some occupations, according to state laws. Certain salaried employees may qualify for overtime pay, but executive, professional and administrative employees, as well as supervisors, who draw salaries do not have to receive overtime compensation regardless of how many hours they work. About a dozen other occupations are exempt from overtime law coverage as well. Examples include farm laborers, domestic employees, newspaper deliverers, golf caddies, many nonprofit workers, switchboard operators and taxicab drivers.
- Employers may want to give give employees compensatory time off instead of overtime pay. But comp time -- paid time off -- is not an allowable substitute for overtime pay, according to Pennsylvania state law. The size of a business has no impact on whether employers must pay overtime when applicable. Even if only one employee is on the payroll, that employee has a right to overtime pay in any week encompassing more than 40 hours.
- Pennsylvania overtime laws do not enforce a weekly hour limit. An employer may require employees to work however many hours the employer chooses, and employees who refuse to work overtime may face discipline or termination. Working weekends or holidays in itself does not give employees a right to overtime pay. Employees must receive overtime pay in those situations only if the hours are overtime hours based on the state's definition.
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