silly question about working overtime

Wendy_RN · Apr 20, 2008

I don't see how that would be legal as far as the labor board is concerned. If you work over 40 hours the facility is required to pay you overtime. As far as taxes, dividing your salary may give you more take home pay per week, but you will pay it when you file your taxes. Uncle Sam does not care how many different W-2's you have. It it the bottom line that counts.

elkpark · Apr 20, 2008

A number of the prn nurses at my facility have full-time jobs, also, but their full-time jobs are with other employers. I've never heard of what you're suggesting.

IndySkies · Apr 20, 2008

I am pretty sure what you are suggesting is illegal from a labor board perspective. I don't think your facility would go for it anyway, even if it was legal.

The thing about excessive deductions with overtime is you should get some of it back in your tax burden at the end of the year, either with a lower our-of-pocket tax payment or refund.

I work(ed) at another facility in the same city while I had a full-time time job, and I know that I had more take home pay per week when I did that rather than when I woked OT at my main facility, However I ended up having to pay $3,000 extra at the end of the year. Even though I took the maxmum amount out of my checks by claiming no deductions and withheld at the higher single rate.

NursKris82 · Apr 20, 2008

I have actually heard of this, not as a nurse though. I work with a girl in a nursing home who was an aide and was trained and hired as a housekeeper (which is contracted out). So she worked both jobs, often in the same day. I geuss this is different in that the checks didn't come from the same company.

racing-mom4, BSN, RN · Apr 20, 2008

I actually did this, in a round about way. Our hospital owns 2 nursing homes. I worked part time at the hospital and also worked part time at one of the nursing homes. I got two checks from the same company. They each were on an every other week pay period the hospital paid 1st and 3rd week of the month and nursing home was 2nd and 4th week. So I got a check every week.

Alot of people would work both places, but they would hand write their hours in on the hospitals pay sheet in their home dept so all their hours both at hosp and nursing home ended up on one check. Where as I just asked for a different time card.

suzanne4, RN · Apr 20, 2008

But you were also working at two facilities.

And from two separate cost centers if you look at the bank account numbers, they are never paid from the same account.

A hospital cannot have a nurse an LTC being posted on the books as working in the hospital, they may be owned by the same parent company but the accountin is completely separate.

racing-mom4, BSN, RN · Apr 20, 2008

But you were also working at two facilities.
And from two separate cost centers if you look at the bank account numbers, they are never paid from the same account.
A hospital cannot have a nurse an LTC being posted on the books as working in the hospital, they may be owned by the same parent company but the accountin is completely separate.

At our facility, for example if you work on the Med Surge floor and that is your "home dept" and then float over to ER, you put in the books 12 hours ER and the date. On your pay check you will have your med surge hours under code 450 and then the line below you will see your ER hours under code 500. If you then pick up at the nursing home, you write in the book 12 hours Cederglen, on your hospital pay check you will see the code 250 and 12 hours.

What I did, instead of writing it in the payroll book, I requested my own seperate time card, then I would get my hospital check that had 40 hours for Med Surge, and then I would get a check the next week that would have my Cederglen hours.

Most people just wrote the nursing home hours in their home dept payroll book and got all thier hours on one check. Both of my checks came from the same company-the hospital. If I ever forgot my nursing home time card, I did exactly that, I would just write them in the book on Med Surge the next time I worked, so I would get paid for those hours on my hospital check for that shift that I forgot to clock in.

As far as I know I was the only employee that requested their own time card, most employees just hand write the nursing home hours in the payroll book for the hospital, HR states it is the same as switching depts. Working at the nursing home, is just like working in another dept of the hosp. That unit gets billed your hours per say, your hours come out of their budget.

bollweevil · Apr 20, 2008

I don't see how that would be legal as far as the labor board is concerned. If you work over 40 hours the facility is required to pay you overtime. As far as taxes, dividing your salary may give you more take home pay per week, but you will pay it when you file your taxes. Uncle Sam does not care how many different W-2's you have. It it the bottom line that counts.

I think this depends on what state she is in, at least somewhat. Some states require that a person be paid overtime after 8 hours per day. Others require it only after 40 hours in a week. Or something like that. :banghead:

She really needs to check with a tax preparer/accountant in her state for guidance in how best to not get financially punished for working OT and exactly what the definition is of OT in her state. :confused:

Chico David, BSN, RN · Apr 21, 2008

The real key here is to be clear about the difference between what your actually pay in taxes and what is deducted from your paycheck. All the payroll programs are set up to deduct from your check as if you made that amount all year.

simple example: for the sake of simplicity, say your normal gross is $1,000 for 2 weeks (we'll hope it's more). The program deducts on the assumption you'll make 26,000 per year.

If one pay period you work a bunch of overtime and make $2,000, the program deducts on the assumption you'll make $52,000 for the year. As if you would be in a higher bracket. So you end up getting much of that back in the end, since you aren't really in that high a bracket. Your paycheck that week looks worse than the reality, but it's how much you end up with for the year that really counts.

CVICURN2003 · Apr 21, 2008

hi
this is kind of silly question, but is it possible to work both full time and contingent at the same facility??? i mean working over time is useless since all the over time pay are tax deducted. i worked 40 hours over time, and my check amount was about the same. if i work both full time and contingent then i dont have to drive to another facility and since i'll be paid the contingent hourly rate, i dont think it will be deducted as much as over time????

we frequently have staff that work full time in one unit (say ccu) then work prn in pacu. if the nurse goes into ot it is charged back to pacu (because it is not her full time job). however these both are paid on the same paycheck and i don't see how that would affect her taxes. you will have to pay the same amt at the end of the year anyway...maybe you should look at you deductions and talk to your tax person. :twocents:

lvnandmomx3 · Apr 21, 2008

I hold 2 different job titles for the company I work for, 1 nursing(3 subcost) 1 non nursing(1subcost), they are different rates of pay. If I go over on hours 40+ it is automatically OT(paid at primary rate of pay*nursing*). If your paycheck comes from the same payroll department then there is no way around it. Only way I see around it, but like other said you would pay at the end at tax time, would be to go through a registry that your hospital may contract with and request to work at your facitly.