SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/753045
FACILITY & OPERATIONS 12 SportsTurf | December 2016 www.sportsturfonline.com WHAT THE NEW OVERTIME RULES MAY MEAN TO YOU "The Amusement & Recreational Exemption is based on months of operation, number of off-season employees, average receipts (the slow 6 months need to be no more than 33% of the average receipts for the busy 6 months), and many other factors. That information comes from Minor League baseball attorneys." "Our salaried people make more than the minimum threshold and we're blessed to have an experienced hourly staff that also makes more than the minimum threshold very quickly once overtime is accrued," said a facilities director at a Power 5 conference university. "Students are restricted by law to 20-hour weeks though so we end up juggling a lot of student schedules. We rely very much on student labor and our need for pseudo full-time labor is non-existent now. I'd say the new rule has tabled our desire to hire what we call XH employees (those allowed to work up to 750 hours in a 12-month period). We used to be able to add XH staff at the stadium during fall and at [indoor arena] during winter sports season but that option went away 5 years ago or more. Other units in our department are reevaluating how they compensate employees. Some have historically used a semester stipend as currency and others have used class credit as currency. "My personal opinion is, Pay the people you depend on a living wage!" continued the facilities director. "I'd rather have thoroughbreds and pay them what they're worth than split the budget up by hiring a whole bunch of underpaid workers and asking them to be loyal. People change jobs frequently these days, there's no reason to give them a major reason to do so even as we depend on them! "If we want to implore our professionalism and be considered professionals then we need to treat others the same way. We reap what we sow." If you become non-exempt with the new salary threshold, the hours you work need to be recorded. But some employees, especially salaried workers, might be unfamiliar with time- keeping systems so you will have to learn how to keep track of hours worked. This means a timekeeping system, which could be on paper or a spreadsheet, though the simplest timekeeping option is online time and attendance software. One big problem may be employers' understanding exactly what their employees do and how much time they spend doing it. Exempt employees may not have been keeping track of their hours so email records or other sources of information may have to be reviewed to begin to understand when employees are working. Time spent traveling should I n May, the Department of Labor announced updates to the Fair Labor Standards Act. One change in particular took effect December 1 — the minimum salary for exempt white-collar employees more than doubled, from $23,660 to $47,476. What does that mean? To be exempt, an employee must receive a salary and have executive, administrative or professional duties. Previously if you made at least $23,660, you were considered exempt and an employer could make you work as much overtime as possible. Now, anyone making less than $47,476 would need to be compensated at time and a half for working in excess of 40 hours during a workweek. The new rules may force employers to reevaluate their current staffing plans, change employees' hours and shifts, and alter employee compensation packages to minimize potential increases in overtime obligations. The overtime law will not affect facilities that have all non-exempt employees with the new threshold. Non-exempt employees always need to be paid overtime for working more than 40 hours per week. "I am far from an expert on this topic, but I can tell you that our team qualifies for a 'Federal Amusement & Recreational Exemption,' so the new overtime rules and salary requirements do not apply to us," said one Minor League Baseball head groundskeeper. "It is up to each individual state to mirror the exemption, so whether a team is affected depends on what state they reside. In the US, eight states do not have minor league baseball, five states are without a minimum wage, 15 states use the seasonal exemption, and for 22 states there is no seasonal exemption, meaning they will be impacted by the new overtime rules. That list includes Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, New York, and North Carolina, states that have numerous minor league teams," the source said. Four ways employers may comply ■ Increase exempt employees' salaries to $47,476 so they can keep their exempt status. ■ Switch newly non-exempt salaried employees to hourly employees. This will make overtime wage calculations easier. ■ Limit the number of overtime hours employees are allowed to work. This will reduce the amount of overtime wages you have to pay. ■ Do a combination of any of the above methods.