Question about overtime pay

[CaterpillarGirl]

Hi all!,

I was watching a rerun of ER the other morning, and the nurses were talking about getting OT for working more than 8 hours in a shift. I'm still a student, but I always figured that if I worked 36 hours a week I wouldn't have overtime, regardless of how the hours were portioned out.

Of course, I'm not taking a TV show for gospel, but do some hospitals pay overtime for the last four hours of a 12 hour shift? This is mostly just out of curiosity. Even making the straight hourly pay will be more than I've ever made in my life.

Also, does anyone know how the new OT regulations will affect nurses? I heard a bunch of stuff about it in the news a few months ago, but it didn't really make a lot of sense.

Thanks!

[rn-jane]

It all depends on your facility. Some places pay ot for working over 8 hours, some may not pay ot til you are over 40 hours, check your employee manuel.

[lovingtheunloved, ASN, RN]

It depends on the facility and the laws of the state. In Arizona, which is a right to work state, OT is paid after 40 hours. I worked 10 days straight and didn't get a dime of OT because it was a Wednesday-Friday. The week begins on Monday, so it was five of one week and five of another. That SUCKED.

[NeuroICURN]

It depends on the state and the facility. Rarely though will you ever get paid for working more than 8 hours in a day.....after all, most work 12s anyway. Now, my facility also doesn't start paying OT till after 40 hours.

As for the new regulations...it won't affect us, we have a union contract.

I do have to say that our OT is pretty sweet too. It doesn't pay us to go anywhere else to work casual, because I get more working OT in my own dept. For OT (you must work at least 4 hours), you get time-&-a-half, plus an additional $8/hour. Can't beat it!

P.S. You can work less than 4 hours OT, but to get the incentive pay, it has to be at least 4 hours.

[meownsmile, BSN, RN]

If the facility offers 12 and 8 hour shifts they will not pay for over 8 hours if you have signed a 12 hour contract. Im not talking a union thing. Our hospital has you sign a 12 hour contract that in effect says you dont get overtime unless you work over 80 hours in a pay period. It does work out,, because the way most 12 hour schedules fall you end up getting at least 4 hours of overtime in the month. The 8 hour people get overtime for anything over 8 hours. The others are right, it could be overtime pay for over 40 hours,, but it depends on the facility usually and what house policy is. Every facility has different policies regarding overtime pay.

[begalli]

My commitment is 3 12 hour shifts/wk. Any amount of time I work beyond any one 12 hour shift is double time. This includes coming in early or staying over on my regularly scheduled shift.

If the unit is short staffed and I decide to come in on a day that I'm not scheduled, the entire shift is time and a half.

We don't have 16 hour shifts, but I know they exist elsewhere. If a person works 16 hours because of overtime, which is the only way to work 16 hours, and is due back to work 8 hours after that 16 hours, the hospital must provide a sleep room with a shower, clean scrubs, and a meal for the rn and the entire shift following the 16 is double time.

There's more in our contract. The 40 or 80 hour thing does not apply.

It's a good contract.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

We give overtime for anything over our normal shift. So if our normal shift is 8 hours then yes, we get overtime. If our normal shift is 12 we get overtime only for staying after the 12, say for a double shift of 16 hours. This is true even is our total hours for the week equals 36, if you stay extra or work extra it's all overtime.

[MarySunshine]

Tweety, do people sign up for 8 hour shifts intending to work 12?