Applies to:	Original Policy Date:	Date of Last Review:	Approved by:
All Florida Tech Employees	August 1, 2016	March 2024	Ryan Petersen General Counsel

Policy Owner: Office of Human Resources

Policy Purpose

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a federal law that defines minimum wages, overtime pay, equal pay for equal work, and other standards. This policy establishes time reporting and leave usage policy and procedure in accordance with the FLSA.

Policy Scope

This policy applies to all Florida Tech employees.

Policy Statement

Florida Tech employees are classified as exempt or non-exempt in alignment with the Fair Labor Standards Act. Employees must follow established work schedules and track and report their time worked and leave taken in accordance with policy guidelines. Overtime hours, when applicable for non-exempt employees, must be approved by the employee’s supervisor before the employee works the overtime hours.

Procedures/Guidelines

The University’s pay week runs from 12:01 a.m. Sunday to midnight the following Saturday.

Exempt salaried employees do not earn overtime but must keep track of any exceptions to their time, such as sick or vacation leave, and report their time accordingly for each pay week.

Non-exempt hourly paid employees are paid for each hour worked by pay week. Any time a non-exempt employee works more than 40 hours in a pay week, the employee must be paid at the overtime rate of time-and-one-half of the regular hourly rate of pay for all hours worked over 40. Overtime calculations are based on the defined pay week, not the biweekly pay period.

For example, a non-exempt employee who works 45 hours in week one and 35 hours in week two of a pay period is owed overtime for the five hours worked over 40 in the first week. While the employee physically worked 80 hours total in a biweekly pay period, overtime is based on the defined pay week and not an average of the total hours worked across the two weeks.

The overtime rate is not applied until the employee physically works over 40 hours. Paid leaves (vacation, sick, holidays, etc.) are not counted as "hours worked" and do not apply to the 40 hour per week limit.

Standard Work Schedules

The standard work schedule for most full-time employees is a 40-hour week consisting of five 8-hour days. The usual hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, but this may vary depending on business needs. Part-time employee hours are based on a schedule determined by the supervisor and employee to meet the needs of the department. Employees will be informed of their work schedules by their immediate supervisors.

Non-exempt (hourly) employees: Work schedules for non-exempt employees normally include an unpaid meal period of at least 30 minutes. During the meal period the employee is free from all work. Additionally, work schedules may provide for one paid 15-minute rest period for each consecutive four hours worked. At departmental discretion other employees may receive rest breaks. If conditions warrant, employees may be asked to work through the normally scheduled rest period. At such times employee cooperation is expected. Rest periods may not be saved to shorten the employee’s workday, to extend meal breaks, or to alter the work schedule. Rest periods not taken will be forfeited. Rest periods will be arranged in a manner that does not disrupt the operation of the department.

Some flexibility does exist within the pay week. For example, if a non-exempt employee is working on a project early in the week and has physically worked 40 hours by the end of the day on Thursday, the employee may be permitted to take the rest of the week off without additional pay. In this way an overtime situation is avoided, but this type of schedule must be approved in advance by the employee’s direct supervisor. However, if the employee works any hours on Friday or Saturday, those hours must be paid at the overtime rate.

Exempt employees: Work schedules for exempt employees normally include a meal period and break period similar to the above. However, a salaried exempt employee is expected to work to the completion of their tasks and duties and at times this may require the employee to work through a break period, stay past normal hours of operation, or come in on weekends.

Recording Time

Non-exempt employees: Employees cannot use sick, vacation, holiday or any other combination of hours to exceed 80 hours per pay period, unless the hours are directly related to time worked and the employee is owed overtime pay.

Absences for non-exempt employees must be charged to the appropriate leave category of sick, vacation or holiday leave. Vacation leave must be taken in lieu of sick leave if sick leave is exhausted and sufficient vacation leave is available. Leave usage is recorded in 15-minute increments and rounded to the nearest quarter hour (i.e., .00, .25, .50, .75). If leave is not available, absences are unpaid and the employee is “docked” for that time.

All non-exempt employees will report actual hours worked and submit for approval on a bi-weekly basis. If an employee uses a time clock for hours tracking, the clock will be set to round hours worked to the nearest 15-minute increment.

Overtime hours and time off requests must be approved in advance by the employee's supervisor.

Exempt employees: These employees are expected to work until necessary tasks are completed or goal accomplished, even when this takes more than forty hours in a week. Per 29 CFR 541.602 an exempt employee must receive the full salary for any week in which the employee performs any work without regard to the number of days or hours worked except for the reasons listed below:

1. Deductions from pay may be made when an exempt employee is absent from work for one or more full days for personal reasons.
2. Deductions from pay may be made for absences of one or more full days occasioned by sickness or disability (including work-related accidents) in accordance with the university’s leave policies.
3. An exempt employee’s absences due to jury duty, attendance as a witness, or temporary military leave can be offset by any amounts received by an employee as jury fees, witness fees or military pay for a particular week against the salary due for that particular week without loss of the exemption.
4. Deductions from pay of exempt employees may be made for penalties imposed in good faith for infractions of safety rules of major significance. Safety rules of major significance include those relating to the prevention of serious danger in the workplace or to other employees.
5. Deductions from pay of exempt employees may be made for unpaid disciplinary suspensions of one or more full days imposed in good faith for infractions of workplace conduct rules.
6. An exempt employee is not required to be paid a full salary in the initial or final week of employment. Payment of a proportionate part of an employee's full salary for the time actually worked in the first and last week of employment is permitted.
7. An exempt employee is not required to be paid a full salary for weeks in which the employee takes unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Rather, when an exempt employee takes unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, the employee may be paid a proportionate part of the full salary for time actually worked. For example, if an employee who normally works 40 hours per week uses four hours of unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, the university could deduct 10 percent of the employee's normal salary that week.

Exempt employees must submit their timesheets on a bi-weekly basis. All exempt employees record only leave taken (vacation, sick and personal time) and submit for approval on a bi-weekly basis. 

A supervisor may not attempt to withhold pay from an exempt employee for deficiencies in the quality or quantity of work produced by the exempt employee. Disciplinary procedures have been established to provide supervisors with a method by which they may deal with an employee’s performance problems.

Comp Time

Federal law does not permit the use of compensatory, or “comp” time for non-exempt employees. If a non-exempt employee works more than 40 hours in a pay week, they must be paid for those hours at the rate of time-and-one-half of their regular hourly rate of pay.

The University does not offer comp time as a standard practice for exempt, salaried employees and it should be avoided.

Travel Time For Non-Exempt Employees

Travel time for non-exempt employees is paid in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Whether time spent traveling by an employee is compensable work time depends on the type of travel and its purpose. Most of the rules governing travel time are contained in the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947 and are applicable to employees covered by the FLSA. (Portal-to-Portal Act §4; W-H Regulation 29 CFR §785.33 -§785.41).

Travel from Home to Work: In general, the time an employee spends going from home to work and from work to home is not work time, whether the employee reports to a fixed location or to different job sites. There are limited instances when travel from home to work is considered work time:

• If an employee who is already home from work is called in for an emergency and must travel a substantial distance to get there.
• If an employee has a special assignment for one day in another city and travels outside the regular workday to get there and back (although time spent traveling from home to a railroad station or airport would not be compensable),

Single-Day Travel: Time spent by the employee in travel as part of normal work activities – such as travel from the job site to a seminar during regular working hours – is considered hours worked. If the employee is required to travel to another city and return home in the same day, the travel time to and from the other city is considered hours worked. If the employee uses public transportation, the travel time between the employee’s home and the point where the employee obtains this transportation (i.e., bus station, airport, etc.) is not considered hours worked. If the employee takes a lunch break, it is not considered hours worked.

Travel Away from Home Overnight on a Workday: Travel time involving a required overnight stay is considered hours worked only when it is during the employee’s regular workday. The employee is simply substituting travel for the regular work hours. Travel time that is outside of normal work hours is not considered hours worked.

Travel on a Non-Workday: If the employee regularly works from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, traveling during the same hours on Saturday and/or Sunday is considered hours worked. The usual lunch break is not considered hours worked. Time spent in travel away from home outside of regular work hours is not considered hours worked. Any work that the employee performs while traveling is considered hours worked even if these hours are outside the employee’s normal work schedule.

Travel as Part of Job: Time spent traveling as part of an employee’s daily work activity (during normal work hours) is compensable work time, including travel from one job site to another or travel from a designated meeting place to a job site.

Travel to and from Home in a Company Vehicle: Use by an employee of an employer’s vehicle for commuting and other incidental travel is not part of the employee’s principal activities and is not compensable time if the vehicle is used within the normal commuting area for the employer’s business.

Definitions

Exempt employee: Employees who are determined to be exempt from the overtime requirements of the FLSA. To be classified exempt, an employee must be paid on a salary basis, meet the minimum salary threshold set by the Department of Labor and meet one of the Department of Labor’s Duties tests. Exempt employees are often referred to as “salaried.”

Non-exempt employee: Employees who are not exempt from the overtime regulations of the FLSA. Any time a non-exempt employee works more than 40 hours in a pay week, the employee must be paid at the overtime rate of time-and-one-half of the regular hourly rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in the pay week.

Duties test: The employee's job duties must primarily involve executive, administrative or professional duties as defined by the regulations.

Compliance Reference

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) 29 U.S.C. § 203

Portal-to-Portal Act §4; W-H Regulation 29 CFR §785.33 - §785.41

Responsibilities

Employees must work with immediate supervisors to maintain compliance with the contents of this policy.

It is the responsibility of the employee to review their time entry records to ensure accuracy.

Enforcement

Unauthorized overtime is not be permitted; employees with continued or multiple violations may be subject to disciplinary action.

Employees who knowingly or intentionally submit inaccurate time reports may be subject to disciplinary action.