§ 548.301 Salaried employees.

(a) Section 548.3(a) authorizes as an established basic rate: “A rate per hour which is obtained by dividing a monthly or semi-monthly salary by the number of regular working days in each monthly or semi-monthly period and then by the number of hours in the normal or regular workday. Such a rate may be used to compute overtime compensation for all the overtime hours worked by the employee during the monthly or semi-monthly period for which the salary is paid.”

(b) Section 548.3(a) may be applied to salaried employees paid on a monthly or semi-monthly basis. Under section 7(a) of the Act the method of computing the regular rate of pay for an employee who is paid on a monthly or semi-monthly salary basis is to reduce the salary to its weekly equivalent by multiplying the monthly salary by 12 (the number of months) or the semi-monthly salary by 24, and dividing by 52 (the number of weeks). The weekly equivalent is then divided by the number of hours in the week which the salary is intended to compensate. ^[1] Section 548.3(a) is designed to provide an alternative method of computing the rate for overtime purposes in the case of an employee who is compensated on a monthly or semi-monthly salary basis, where this method is found more desirable. This method is applicable only where the salary is paid for a specified number of days per week and a specified number of hours per day normally or regularly worked by the employee. It permits the employer to take into account the variations in the number of regular working days in each pay period. The basic rate authorized by § 548.3(a) is obtained by dividing the monthly or semi-monthly salary by the number of regular working days in the month or half-month, and then by the number of hours of the normal or regular work day.