Non-exempt employees must receive overtime at one and a half times the regular rate for hours over the weekly threshold. The disputes are almost never about the multiplier; they are about the rate and the hours.

The regular rate includes almost all remuneration: hourly wages, non- discretionary bonuses, shift differentials, commissions, and the value of certain prizes. It excludes gifts, discretionary bonuses genuinely at the employer’s option, paid leave, and qualifying reimbursements.

Non-discretionary bonuses must be retroactively allocated across the workweeks they cover, and overtime recalculated. A quarterly production bonus paid without that recalculation is a systematic underpayment.

The workweek is the unit. A fixed and regularly recurring period of seven consecutive twenty-four hour periods. Averaging two weeks together is not permitted, however the pay period is set.

Hours worked include time the employer suffers or permits, whether or not authorized. Pre-shift work, post-shift duties, working through unpaid meal breaks, and after-hours messages all count if the employer knew or should have known.

State law may require daily overtime or different rules, and the employee gets the more generous standard.

Records are the employer’s obligation. Where they are missing, employee estimates carry the day.