CFR > Title 29 - Labor > SUBTITLE B—Regulations Relating to Labor > CHAPTER V—WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR (parts 500 to 871) > SUBCHAPTER A—REGULATIONS (parts 500 to 697) > PART 548—AUTHORIZATION OF ESTABLISHED BASIC RATES FOR COMPUTING OVERTIME PAY > SUBPART B—Interpretations (§548.100 to §548.502) > 548.305—Excluding certain additions to wages.

548.305—Excluding certain additions to wages.

(a) Section 548.3(e) authorizes as established basic rates: “The rate or rates (not less than the rates required by section 6 (a) and (b) of the Act) which may be used under the Act to compute overtime compensation of the employee but excluding additional payments in cash or in kind which, if included in the computation of overtime under the Act, would not increase the total compensation of the employee by more than 50 cents a week on the average for all overtime weeks (in excess of the number of hours applicable under section 7(a) of the Act) in the period for which such additional payments are made.”
(b) Section 548.3(e) permits the employer, upon agreement or understanding with the employee, to omit from the computation of overtime certain incidental payments which have a trivial effect on the overtime compensation due. Examples of payments which may be excluded are: modest housing, bonuses or prizes of various sorts, tuition paid by the employer for the employee's attendance at a school, and cash payments or merchandise awards for soliciting or obtaining new business. It may also include such things as payment by the employer of the employee's social security tax.
(c) The exclusion of one or more additional payments under § 548.3(e) must not affect the overtime compensation of the employee by more than 50 cents a week on the average for the overtime weeks.

Code of Federal Regulations

Example. An employee, who normally would come within the 40-hour provision of section 7(a) of the Act, is paid a cost-of-living bonus of $260 each calendar quarter, or $20 per week. The employee works overtime in only 2 weeks in the 13-week period, and in each of these overtime weeks he works 50 hours. He is therefore entitled to $2 as overtime compensation on the bonus for each week in which overtime was worked (i.e., $20 bonus divided by 50 hours equals 40 cents an hour; 10 overtime hours, times one-half, times 40 cents an hour, equals $2 per week). Since the overtime on the bonus is more than 50 cents on the average for the 2 overtime weeks, this cost-of-living bonus would not be excluded from the overtime computation under § 548.3(e) .
(d) It is not always necessary to make elaborate computations to determine whether the effect of the exclusion of a bonus or other incidental payment on the employee's total compensation will exceed 50 cents a week on the average. Frequently the addition to regular wages is so small or the number of overtime hours is so limited that under any conceivable circumstances exclusion of the additional payments from the rate used to compute the employee's overtime compensation would not affect the employee's total earnings by more than 50 cents a week. The determination that this is so may be made by inspection of the payroll records or knowledge of the normal working hours.

Code of Federal Regulations

Example. An employer has a policy of giving employees who have a perfect attendance record during a 4-week period a bonus of $10. The employee never works more than 50 hours a week. It is obvious that exclusion of this attendance bonus from the rate of pay used to compute overtime compensation could not affect the employee's total earnings by more than 50 cents a week. 14
Footnote(s): 14 For a 50-hour week, an employee's bonus would have to amount to $5 a week to affect his overtime compensation by 50 cents.
(e) There are many situations in which the employer and employee cannot predict with any degree of certainty the amount of bonus to be paid at the end of the bonus period. They may not be able to anticipate with any degree of certainty the number of hours an employee might work each week during the bonus period. In such situations the employer and employee may agree prior to the performance of the work that a bonus will be disregarded in the computation of overtime pay if the employee's total earnings are not affected by more than 50 cents a week on the average for all overtime weeks during the bonus period. If it turns out at the end of the bonus period that the effect on the employee's total compensation would not exceed 50 cents a week on the average, then additional overtime compensation must be paid on the bonus. (See § 778.209 of this chapter, for an explanation of how to compute overtime on the bonus.)
(f) In order to determine whether the exclusion of a bonus or other incidental payment would affect the total compensation of the employee by not more than 50 cents a week on the average, a comparison is made between his total compensation computed under the employment agreement and his total compensation computed in accordance with the applicable overtime provisions of the Act.

Code of Federal Regulations

Example. An employee, who normally would come within the 40-hour provision of section 7(a) of the Act, is paid at piece rates and at one and one-half times the applicable piece rates for work performed during hours in excess of 40 in the workweek. The employee is also paid a bonus, which when apportioned over the bonus period, amounts to $2 a week. He never works more than 50 hours a week. The piece rates could be established as basic rates under the employment agreement and no additional overtime compensation paid on the bonus. The employee's total compensation computed in accordance with the applicable overtime provision of the Act, section 7(g)(1) 15 would be affected by not more than 20 cents in any week by not paying overtime compensation on the bonus. 16
Footnote(s): 15 Section 7(g)(1) of the Act provides that overtime compensation may be paid at one and one-half times the applicable piece rate but extra overtime compensation must be properly computed and paid on additional pay required to be included in computing the regular rate.
Footnote(s): 16 Bonus of $2 divided by fifty hours equals 4 cents an hour. Half of this hourly rate multiplied by ten overtime hours equals 20 cents.
(g) Section 548.3(e) is not applicable to employees employed at subminimum wage rates under learner certificates, or special certificates for handicapped workers, or in the case of employees in Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands employed at special minimum rates authorized by wage orders issued pursuant to the Act.

Code of Federal Regulations

[31 FR 6769, May 6, 1966]