Within your organization, it is important to define the positions which are eligible for overtime and which ones are not. Although every province has slightly different rules with regards to the amount of time required to work prior to receiving overtime, the rules for who is eligible for overtime are generally the same.
One misconception that we hear often is: Hourly employees receive overtime and salaried do not.
While this often turns out to be the case in many organizations, it is the position’s level of responsibility that determines the eligibility of overtime, not the manor in which the employee’s compensation is paid. For example: you could have a salaried file clerk who is overtime eligible.
In general the types of positions that are not eligible for overtime are:
- Professionals – these are positions where the employee is considered to be “an expert” and/or has some type of designation in their field (i.e. Accountants, Engineers, Information Technology professionals).
- Managers – People whose work is supervisory or managerial in character.
- If a supervisor of a manager performs non-supervisory tasks on occasion they will not be eligible for overtime while performing this task
Companies also need to make sure that they have a policy set out on how overtime will be paid:
- Is the overtime going to be banked, and time off granted in place of overtime pay at 1 ½ times the hours worked?
OR - Is the employee going to be paid 1 ½ times their hourly wage?
As always if you have questions regarding overtime rules, please contact your PEO Canada Representative.
- Written By: Diane Heavens