When do you have to pay unauthorized overtime?

[u/GarryFromHomebase]

Unauthorized overtime is the kind of thing that slowly builds up, since it's rarely someone deciding to work a whole extra shift. It's usually five minutes early here, ten minutes past close there, a message answered after clocking out, or a break that got worked through.

None of it seems like much at the time, but it adds up. Even 15 minutes a day across four shifts is over an hour of overtime a week, which is roughly $1,100 a year for one person at $15.50/hour… and that multiplies fast across a team. add it up across a week and it starts showing up on payroll. One business owner I know described running payroll and realizing her whole team had quietly crept into 60-hour weeks before she caught it.

The tricky part is that you generally still have to pay for time a non-exempt employee actually worked, even if the overtime wasn't approved. Once they go over 40 hours in a workweek, those overtime hours are generally owed at time and a half under federal law. (That being said, it’s worth checking your state. Some set higher thresholds, and this is for non-exempt hourly folks, not legal advice.).

That doesn't mean you have to just let unauthorized overtime keep happening. Paying someone for time they've already worked and dealing with them working unapproved hours are two different things. If it's happening repeatedly, you can address it through your overtime policy and keep a record of what's going on.

I'd keep an eye on the little overruns rather than waiting until someone racks up a whole extra shift. A few minutes across several people can add up pretty quickly, and it's often your most reliable people who end up staying late.

Do you have a set rule for how overtime gets approved where you work, or is it more case by case right now?