Prepare to pay shift workers for extra hour

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With Daylight Saving Time ending this weekend, businesses who operate overnight shifts will have to pay employees for an extra hour of work, or face penalties.

Daylight Saving Time ends at 2 a.m. on Sunday, at which time clocks are turned back one hour. Any nonexempt employees working at that time will work the 1 a.m. hour twice, making their shift nine hours instead of eight.

Attorney Melissa Cassell with Morton & Gettys in Rock Hill said companies could face violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act if they don’t pay employees for the extra hour.

“For purposes of payroll, you need to make sure that those employees are paid for those two hours,” she said.

Although South Carolina does not have specific overtime laws, the federal Fair Labor Standards Act applies to the overtime that could be earned by working overnight when Daylight Saving Time ends.

“The Fair Labor Standards Act says that overtime pay, which is time-and-a-half, is due and payable to employees who work in excess of 40 hours in a given work week,” Cassell said. “So if that additional hour of that shift puts somebody over 40 hours, you also need to think about paying them overtime.”

Cassell suggested employers not wanting to pay an hour of overtime shorten the length of employees’ shifts temporarily, if possible.