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3.12 Time Reporting/Pay Procedures/Overtime

Revised effective 01/01/2011

The College has two payrolls, monthly and bi-weekly. The monthly payroll includes all faculty and exempt (salaried) staff. The Bi-weekly payroll includes all non-exempt staff and student employees.

Please Note: The college does not provide payroll advances.

Macalester uses a online time reporting system for reporting all time. This secure system is based in the 1600grand portal.

For specific questions related to timesheet coding, FAQs, and payroll schedules, please see the Payroll website.

General procedures to related to these payrolls and reporting time for each payroll type follows:

3.12.1 NON-EXEMPT STAFF

Nonexempt staff (paid an hourly wage) are paid every other Friday for the two-week period ending the previous Saturday. A payroll period is two consecutive weeks – Sunday through Saturday. Nonexempt staff are required by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to complete time cards.

Timesheets that have been completed by employees must be submitted prior to 4:30 p.m. on the Monday proceeding the Friday payday. Supervisors must approve the online timesheets by noon the next day.

Paper paychecks will be delivered to home addresses for staff and student mail boxes for student workers.

Time Reporting and Overtime Rules for Non-Exempt Staff:

  • Macalester’s work week begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday. The normal work week for an employee with 1.0 FTE is 38.75 hours per work week. Overtime is calculated based on the number of hours actually worked during a work week. Hours worked through 40 per week will be compensated at the regular rate for the job assigned to the employee. Hours worked in excess of 40 per week will be compensated (per the FLSA) at 1 and 1/2 times the regular rate.
  • Compensatory time (the practice of providing future time off in lieu of FLSA mandated overtime compensation) is not permitted at Macalester.
  • The College operates on a fixed salary budget. Supervisors and staff are encouraged to be aware of and regulate time worked per week to remain under the 40 hour limit.
  • Overtime hours and time off requests must be approved in advance by the employee’s supervisor.
  • Paid leaves (vacation, medical, holidays, etc.) are not counted as “hours worked” and do not apply to the 40 hour per week limit.
  • Observances of regular paid holidays are reported on timesheets
  • Usage of the floating paid holiday is reported on the timesheet in a separate category – see 11.9.1 for more details regarding the floating paid holiday
  • All paid leaves and time worked (on the day it actually occurred) must be properly coded on the payroll timesheet.

3.12.2 EXEMPT STAFF

Exempt staff (salaried) are paid on the last working day of the month.

Paper paychecks will be delivered to home addresses for faculty and staff without direct deposit.  Those with direct deposit may view their electronic pay stubs via 1600grand.

Exempt staff do not complete a timesheet indicating when they worked. However, leave eligible exempt staff are required to complete a monthly leave report indicating all absences.  Exempt employees generally do not receive overtime, compensatory time, or additional pay for hours worked or travel time outside normal work hours.

  • All leave eligible exempt staff should complete an online leave report for each month
  • In the event no paid leave was taken, a leave report with zero hours, in the first day of the month, should be submitted
  • Leave usage is recorded in hours rounded to the nearest quarter hour (i.e. .00, .25, .50, .75)
  • Online leave reports are due to be submitted by the employee by the 10th of each month for the previous months leave
  • Exempt staff are expected to expected to adhere to the standard hours/FTE for the position and the regular work week of the department unless authorized to be on a flexible schedule (see 3.11.1 for details) – work in excess of your scheduled hours may be required as necessary to perform the duties of the job
  • Observance of regular paid holidays are not reported on leave reports
  • Usage of the floating paid holiday is reported on the leave report – see 11.9.1 for more details regarding the floating paid holiday

3.12.3 TIME REPORTING AND SEVERE WEATHER CLOSURES

In the event of a severe weather closure of campus, staff employees may need to adjust time sheet/ leave reporting to compensate for the time difference during the workweek – Also, as certain jobs are critical to maintaining essential operations and safety for the students that reside on campus, some employees may be asked to report to campus even in the event of severe weather closure. The following policy informs staff employees of Macalester as to how to do time reporting and the college’s treatment of severe weather closures from a compensation perspective.

Severe weather closures will be announced via various media with as much advance notice as possible (see policy 13.3.3 for details):

  • In the event a closure is designated as the full day — for purposes of time reporting, the severe weather closure rules apply starting at midnight and ending at 11:59 PM on the day designated
  • In the event the campus closure starts or ends at a specific time during the work day, specific close and open times will be provided in the official announcement and the severe weather closure rules apply during that time only.

Salaried (exempt) Staff Employees

  • No special leave reporting is required if you worked or did not work during the closing.
  • If you were scheduled to work and were required to physically come to campus, the college will provide additional vacation leave equal to the time you physically worked on campus during the designated severe weather closure.

Hourly (non-exempt) Staff Employees

  • If you were scheduled to work on or after the college is closed but telecommuted/worked from home or did not work:
    • Report any time you telecommuted or worked from home in the “Time Worked” category on your electronic time sheet.
    • Report the balance of your scheduled time (time you would have worked) in the “Severe Weather Closing” category on your electronic time sheet.
  • If you were scheduled to work and were required to physically come to campus, report the hours as normal on your electronic time sheet.
  • If you were scheduled to work and were required to physically come to campus, the college will provide additional vacation leave equal to the time you physically worked on campus during the designated severe weather closure.

Effect on Hourly Pay

For hourly staff employees, who report “Severe Weather Closing” hours, the college will pay you this time at the regular hourly rate. As with other paid leaves, time associated with “Severe Weather Closing” category does not count toward the weekly overtime limit as defined by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), since these are not “hours worked.” 

Student Employees

Consistent with federal work/study guidelines, student employees required to submit hourly time sheets should only report time actually worked during a designated severe weather closure.

3.12.4 NON-EXEMPT STAFF TRAVEL POLICY

If a non-exempt (hourly) employee is required to travel for business purposes, both the manager and employee will be responsible for accurately identifying and reporting all hours deemed to be compensable under this policy.

It is important that managers and employees first establish what the “normal schedule” is for the employee in question, as it serves to guide some elements of compensable time. At Macalester, the vast majority of non-exempt staff (excluding those covered by a collective bargaining agreement) work a 7.75 hour shift each day of the work week, Monday through Friday, unless they are part-time. An example of a typical work schedule would be 8am to 4:30pm which equals 8.5 hours. After deducting the 45 minute lunch break, the employee is paid for 7.75 hours.

Hours associated with a daily commute to and from work are not considered compensable time.

Capturing compensable time for a non-exempt employee during travel periods requires planning and communication between the manager and the employee. To facilitate this, below is guidance and examples of typical scenarios one might encounter:

“In Transit” Travel Defined

“In Transit” should be viewed as the time to travel to a destination. Generally, an easier way to distinguish the difference between compensable time and non-compensable time when traveling is as follows:

1. Generally, any time “in transit” that overlaps with the “normal schedule”, regardless of the day, is compensable.

2. Hours where the employee is “in transit” but fall outside the “normal schedule” are generally NOT compensable, unless the employee is the person responsible for driving the vehicle of transportation or the employee is engaged in a “one day special assignment”.

Example 1 – employee normally works 8:30am to 5pm M-F. They take a flight home that leaves Chicago at 4pm on Sunday. This employee should be compensated for 1 hour (4pm to 5pm) as it overlaps with the “normal schedule”.

Example 2 – employee normally works 8:30am to 5pm M-F. They drive a vehicle home from Chicago, leaving at 4pm and arriving at 12am. For the purpose of determining compensable time for “in transit”, this employee should be compensated for all hours between 4pm and 12am as they were the driver of the vehicle.

Frequently, travel comes with delays and changes to an itinerary. In these circumstances, such as layovers, canceled flights, missed flights, etc., the employee and manager should utilize the same guidelines laid out in this policy as it pertains to the normal work schedule and what type of day it is (M-F or Weekend/Holiday).

Non-exempt employee has a local, business related event off campus

Example: A non-exempt employee, who normally works on campus, attends an event or meeting during the work day away from campus. If travel originates from campus and ends back at campus during the normal work shift, time spent travelling to and from campus should be compensated. Traveling from and back to home would be considered “normal daily commute” and is not compensable time.

Travel Not Involving an Overnight Stay (Special One Day Assignment)

In cases where the employee engages in authorized travel to another city, when an overnight stay is not required, compensable hours are as follows:

Example 1: A non-exempt employee flies to Chicago to attend a meeting and returns home the same day. He/she should be compensated for all hours beginning with their arrival at the airport and extending through the time that they arrive back at Minneapolis. For example, Employee arrives at the airport at 7am then flies to Chicago on an 8:30am flight. At the end of the day, the employee flies home on a 7pm flight, arriving at 8:30pm. The Employee should be compensated for all hours between 7am and 8:30pm, minus a 45 meal break, unless they engaged in work during the meal break.

Example 2: Employee drives to Duluth on a work day for an event. Assuming the employee leaves from home in the morning and returns later that day, the employee should be compensated for all hours incurred, including drive time, for this authorized trip. For instance, employee leaves home at 6am, drives to Duluth to meet with prospective students from 9am to 4pm and then drives home, arriving at 7pm. This employee would record 12.25 hours on the timecard which is 13 hours total time (6am to 7pm), minus a 45 minute meal break. The meal break could also be compensable time if the break was used for a business related purpose (ie. meeting with a vendor, donor or prospective student, etc.).

Travel Involving an Overnight Stay (Travel Away From Home Community)

Similar to the previous example, time commuting from home to the airport and then from the airport to home, is generally not compensable time. However, given the number of possible scenarios related to a situation like this, the following should be used for determining compensable time:

Example: A non-exempt employee, who is regularly scheduled to work Monday through Friday from 8:30 am to 5pm, flies to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday on an 8:30 am flight, for a two-day conference and flies home Wednesday night on a 7pm flight.

Day One (Tuesday): He/she is entitled to compensation for time spent traveling to the conference beginning at 8:30am and all time at the conference or elsewhere until 5pm. Meal times at the conference need not be counted as hours worked unless the employee is required to attend the meal or uses that period for work purposes, in which case that time should also be counted as hours worked. Additionally, if the employee conducts work on behalf of Macalester after 5pm, those hours should also be included as compensable time. This “work” could include checking and responding to business email, listening to and answering business voicemail or attending required events in the evening such as a dinner with a donor or prospective students, etc.

Day Two (Wednesday): He/she should be compensated for all conferencerelated activities between 8:30am and 5pm, but not for the time spent flying home after 5pm. However, if the conference does not end until 6pm, he/she should be paid until 6pm but not for the time commuting/flying home in the evening.

An exception to travel time being uncompensated is if the employee uses that time to engage in work on behalf of Macalester. This “work” could include checking and responding to business email, listening to and answering business voicemail or working on their laptop during their travel. Time that the employee reports as “worked time” should be included as compensable time.

Travel Away From Home Overnight Involving Weekends and Holidays

Time spent “in transit” on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays during hours that correspond to the employee’s “normal working schedule” should be counted as time worked for pay purposes. However, travel time that falls outside the “normal working schedule” on these days is not compensable time.

Example: An employee who regularly works Monday through Friday, 8am to 4:30pm, takes a 1pm flight on Saturday (arriving at 4pm) for a multiple day business trip to New York. The formal business begins on Sunday with a brunch and presentation to prospective students from 10am to 2pm. No other commitment is scheduled for the remainder of Sunday. The employee should be paid for the time to fly to New York (3 hours) on Saturday and time worked on Sunday from 10am to 2pm.

On Monday, the employee works from 8am to 4:30pm with a 45-minute duty-free lunch break.

On Tuesday, after working all day starting at 8am with a 45-minute duty-free lunch break, the employee returns home on a flight that leaves New York at 5pm and arrives at 8:45pm. The employee should be compensated for hours that overlap with their normal schedule. In this case, we would compensate the employee from 8am to 4:30pm on Tuesday, but not for hours in flight after 4:30pm.

To summarize this trip, the employee should be paid 3 hours on Saturday; 4 hours on Sunday; full day (7.75 hours) for Monday and full day for Tuesday (7.75 hours).

Time spent on personal activities (eating, sleeping, down time between events/meetings) on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, is not counted as time worked for pay purposes, provided the employee does not engage in work activity.

Compensation and Overtime

A non-exempt employee will be compensated for travel time in connection with any of the scenarios noted above, at his/her normal wage rate.

If the total number of compensable hours exceeds 40 hours in a work week, hours in excess of 40 will be paid at 1and ½ times their regular rate of pay.

Managing Overtime Expenses

Given the complexity associated with accurately compensating non-exempt employees during travel periods, it is critical that the Manager and the employee discuss travel plans and work expectations prior to the planned trip.

To minimize overtime expense, it is acceptable for a manager to adjust an employee’s schedule to accommodate anticipated hours accrued for a business related trip.

Example: In anticipation of an employee trip from Thursday to Sunday, the manager could give the employee Monday and Tuesday off. Those days would not be supplemented with vacation or sick time as the intent of giving the days off is to make room for the employee to accumulate hours during their trip.

In cases where a Manager intentionally adjusts an Employee’s schedule, as in the example above, the outcome should not result in an employee being paid less than their normal FTE in a pay period.

Updated November 2016