12 hour shifts in California for LVNs - Overtime calculation?

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Specializes in All age groups, Acute and Ambulatory.

I just started working 12-hour shifts for an Orange County Hospital. Nights from 7pm until 7:30am next morning.

I'm full-time which is 3 12-hour shifts.

My paycheck for 5 consecutive days had 5 hours overtime! One of those days was a holiday.

Are nurses exempt from overtime on 12-hours? Does anyone know how the hours are calculated?

Thanks. I'm going to ask HR too, but I'd rather hear from other nurses first. :confused:

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I have had employers that, after the fact, tried to get me to sign an agreement that anything over 8 hours in a day would not be paid at overtime. They didn't pay me the overtime and I chose not to take the matter up with the Labor Board. An employment attorney made me aware that there is, I believe, a three year limit on the time I have to file a complaint.

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Specializes in All age groups, Acute and Ambulatory.

Glad I asked! Well now when I speak with HR I'll be forewarned. I'm going to print out the regs from the Labor Board website. Thank you! :)

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By the way, I know someone who works in a hospital in LA county, 3 12's like you do, on the weekend and PM shift, gets paid overtime over 8 hours, differential for weekends, and a differential for night shift. Interesting that one hospital follows the law for overtime where another one does not. There must be a way around it.

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The hospital you work at may have an alternative work week that was voted on and put in place prior to your working there. If they did it right, you would work for straight time for 12 hours per day. Overtime is still paid for any time worked over 40 hours in one week (holidays, vacation, sick time paid does not count towards overtime). You also need to know when your work week starts and ends, because some of your 5 straight days may have fallen into 2 work weeks and then your 40 hour limit would have been reset. You still should have HR explain how your hours were calculated. If all 5 consecutive shifts were in one work week, you should have gotten 8 hours of overtime- 3 12 hours (36 Regular) the 4th worked shift would be 4 hours regular to get to 40 hours, and then 8 OT. The holiday is paid at regular rate.

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TN's response is correct about alternative working arrangements that may be in place. In addition to any labor contract, there are many hospitals that roll the overtime pay into a higher rate of pay (take the pay for 8 hours, add in 4 hours of time and a half and divide by 12 to come up with a higher hourly wage) but neglect to mention this during interviews. It explains why Hospital A pays such a higher hourly rate compared to Hospital B. When someone does the math though to compare a shift rate for both scenarios the rates are usually closer than they appear. Unfortunately, most folks only hear the "rate of pay" and don't think to ask if that includes OT pay.

There is an advantage to doing this alternative to the employee. If only a partial shift is worked (due to census drops) and the employee leaves early, you will make more than the employee who would have gotten time and a half because those OT hours might be lost.

In most cases there are stringent rules about how many work shifts can be done in a week. It is common to have nurses request to work 4 shifts one week and 2 the next at times to have a stretch of time off without needed to take vacation pay. Under the OT rolled into a straight rate scenario this is usually not allowed because it goes over the hours in a 7 day alternative schedule and would generate double time after 40 worked hours. This is alternative calculation of work hours usually goes along with the rate calculation.

Also, this can't be only for LVNs. This has to apply to the RNs as well and probably to the entire facility in areas where shifts are worked with 12 hours as the standard shift.

Before running to HR to complain, talk to your manager. Give him/her a chance to review this and explain how the hours are calculated. It is far more collaborative in this new job to go through the chain of command. It is possible it was an oops in how you were entered into the payroll system or someone didn't review your time punches correctly. If there is an expectation for YOU to review and provide an edit approval form for the punches, this should be explained during your orientation for how to do this.

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Specializes in OR, public health, dialysis, geriatrics.

Most facilities will not pay you overtime unless you are working over 40 hours per week. Doesn't matter how many hours you work in your shift or if you are asked to stay over, unless you get it approved from management that you are staying for OT not regular pay. I haven't been paid OT for staying over 8 in at least 10 years. That practice has pretty much gone the way of the dodo.

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Specializes in emergency, neuroscience and neurosurg..

It is really funny that during my reading for Policy and Issues class (back in grad school) this topic was just covered. Soooo let me tell you the gist of what I just read....

Bedside nurses are not exempt from overtime. Overtime does not start though until you have worked more than 40 hours. So even though you are only scheduled to work three 12hr shifts/week, you do not start accruing overtime until after that 40th hr.

The other thing you need to examine is were the 5 shifts covering 2 different payweeks. The information you need to know before going to HR is when does the payweek begin and end at your institution? If those shifts were worked on two different pay weeks then it doesn't matter that it was 5 consecutive shifts. You cannot receive overtime because the week started over. Making sure of these facts before going to HR will reassure yourself and keep you from looking bad to the HR dept, who get tired of employees complaining about their checks every week.... I don't mean to imply that you're not correct in any way just a protection and precaution for you. I do the same double checks for myself if I ever have an issue regarding money or other sensitive topics. (I don't like having to eat crow..... do it a lot any way though :D

Have a great week and good luck with HR!!!!!

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It is really funny that during my reading for Policy and Issues class (back in grad school) this topic was just covered. Soooo let me tell you the gist of what I just read....

Bedside nurses are not exempt from overtime. Overtime does not start though until you have worked more than 40 hours. So even though you are only scheduled to work three 12hr shifts/week, you do not start accruing overtime until after that 40th hr.

The other thing you need to examine is were the 5 shifts covering 2 different payweeks. The information you need to know before going to HR is when does the payweek begin and end at your institution? If those shifts were worked on two different pay weeks then it doesn't matter that it was 5 consecutive shifts. You cannot receive overtime because the week started over. Making sure of these facts before going to HR will reassure yourself and keep you from looking bad to the HR dept, who get tired of employees complaining about their checks every week.... I don't mean to imply that you're not correct in any way just a protection and precaution for you. I do the same double checks for myself if I ever have an issue regarding money or other sensitive topics. (I don't like having to eat crow..... do it a lot any way though :D

Have a great week and good luck with HR!!!!!

This is true as long as you are normally scheduled to work 12 hour shifts. However, if you normally work 8 hour shifts, then typically, OT would be anything over 8 hours in one day, plus anything over 40 hours in one week.

I also have to disagree with the post that said holidays don't count. All actual hours worked count toward the 40 hours. So if you worked 5 12-hour shifts in one week, the first 40 should be paid straight time and the remaining 20 hours should be paid at time and a half, plus you should get paid your holiday rate.

Example: Just to make the math simple, let's say you make $20/hr all inclusive of shift diff, etc., you get double time for the holiday, and your first day in that work week was the holiday. You would make $800 for the first 40 hours actually worked (40 hours X $20/hr), $600 for the remaining 20 hours actually worked (20 hours X $30/hr), plus an additional $240 for 12 hours of holiday pay (12 hours X $20/hr), for a total gross income for that week of $1640.

I do agree that you should talk to your manager first, since this may be an honest error, or a misunderstanding on your part about how your OT is calculated.

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In my state time worked over 8 hours in one day is considered overtime. A few years ago they changed the overtime laws to make the requirement more than 40 hours in a week, but then the law was changed back to the original.

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GM2RN- we are both correct about the holiday pay, if she actually worked on the holiday then those hours worked would count towards overtime. I was talking about companies that actually pay their workers for a holiday and do not make them work, then those holiday hours do not count towards overtime (nor do sick or vacation ). Lucky us who work in doctors offices!

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GM2RN- we are both correct about the holiday pay, if she actually worked on the holiday then those hours worked would count towards overtime. I was talking about companies that actually pay their workers for a holiday and do not make them work, then those holiday hours do not count towards overtime (nor do sick or vacation ). Lucky us who work in doctors offices!

I see. Yes, that's my understanding too. Same goes for PTO. If you work 2 scheduled shifts, take PTO for a third scheduled shift, then pick up and work a fourth shift, the PTO hours do not count as toward your 40 hours and the 3 shifts actually work are all paid at straight time wages.

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