If a nonexempt employee works a full 40-hours in the workweek and also takes a day of paid vacation or holiday, is the employee entitled to overtime pay?
According to the Fair Labor Standards Act, nonexempt employees must be paid overtime at time and one-half their regular rate of pay for all hours actually worked over 40 in a single workweek. Thus, in calculating how many hours a nonexempt employee actually works in a week, the employer does not have to count the paid vacation or holiday time towards the 40-hour workweek. For example, an employee normally works Monday through Friday, eight hours a day, and receives a paid holiday and does not work on the Monday. The employee then works Tuesday through Friday, eight hours a day, and is asked to work four additional hours on Saturday. The employee’s pay for the week would reflect a total of 44 paid hours, however since the employee actually worked only 36 hours, he would not receive any overtime pay.
