Extended Work Week Pay for Employees Working on Contracts

Policy Statement

Michigan Tech is committed to supporting its employees’ substantial efforts beyond the customary 40-hour work week as an important and necessary component of the research enterprise related to customer-driven contracted deliverables. In unusual cases and only with prior approval of the sponsor and the University, eligible employees may be compensated for Extended Work Week (EWW) Overload Pay in excess of their institutional base salary (IBS).

Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to establish guidelines for granting and processing EWW Overload Pay for Michigan Tech employees who are:

  1. being paid from external contracts on projects or missions that are designated as critical (which may include working from a temporary location other than the regular worksite);
  2. exempt from the FLSA’s overtime requirements;
  3. working on episodic, specific, work activity exceeding the customary University work week; and
  4. are working on a client deliverable requiring operations that are continuous in nature and cannot reasonably be interrupted or completed otherwise.

Exempt staff may be required to work substantial hours beyond the customary 40-hour week in support of customer-driven schedule requirements or critical needs for specialized capabilities for contract deliverables for a specified period.  At such times, the university may compensate exempt employees for the number of hours worked within each week at a straight-time rate, charging directs, fringes and facilities and administration costs to the customer for these additional hours.

In addition to allowing for improved cost recovery and customer satisfaction, these provisions for an Extended Work Week (EWW) enable the University to be competitive as an employer. To attract and retain an effective, committed work force, Michigan Tech strives to offer competitive levels of pay and compensation to eligible employees when there is a compelling need that requires additional and sustained work hours over a defined period of time.

This policy specifies the conditions that employees must satisfy to be eligible for EWW Overload Pay and the process by which the additional compensation will be paid.  This approach is for unique circumstances and allowable under the Fair Labor Standards Act whereby such employees still maintain their exempt status.

Scope

This policy applies to all Michigan Tech employees who are:

  • exempt (salaried) employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); 
  • working additional overload hours on direct charge contracts; 
  • working on contracts or subcontracts with approved extended work week provisions; and
  • working hours during an approved EWW period that do not include use of vacation leave, holiday pay, sick leave or personal leave.

General Requirements

An approved request for EWW Overload Pay meets the following criteria:

  • The EWW affects only full-time salaried employees with 40-hour scheduled workweeks. Extended work schedules and actual hours worked must be in excess of the customary 40-hour weekly schedule and also in excess of 80 hours in a two-week period.
  • The EWW begins at the start of a pay cycle and concludes at the end of the pay cycle.
  • Employees who are regularly scheduled to work less than forty hours a week are not eligible for EWW pay. EWW is only for direct hours and is for episodic, customer-driven schedule requirements or critical needs for specialized capabilities that are needed for a specific period of time within a defined period of time only; normally two or more consecutive workweeks.
  • The request demonstrates a compelling business need requiring additional work hours in order to meet client deliverables or deadlines.
  • Each occurrence of EWW has documented approval from the customer contract officer prior to approval of EWW request by program manager.
  • The additional hours are direct labor, chargeable, billable, including facilities and administrative costs with no additional fringe beyond the standard rates applicable for such EWW period and are fully recoverable under the contract agreement.
  • After-the-fact requests will not be processed/permitted/allowed from a sponsored index.

Procedures

Prior to the Overload Pay work being performed, the following steps must be taken:

  • The EWW request is made in writing by the Michigan Tech supervisor or the PI on the contract, to the program manager/officer, defining the time-period and business necessity for the request prior to work commencing. Written confirmation/approval is ultimately required from the contracting officer.
  • Once sponsor approval is received, the department will complete and submit an Employee Status Change form (gold), available from Human Resources Forms. For these purposes, select "Additional Compensation" as the reason for the change and insert "EWW Overload Pay" as text into the Comments/Justification section, along with completing all other required information. 

    The requisite Dean or Vice President approves the request in writing via the form. Approval of the EWW overload pay applies only to the individual(s) named and is not transferable to others.

Relative to the pay, the following apply:

  • The additional hours are paid via the EWW Overload Pay process at the exempt employee’s straight time hourly rate (calculated as annual base salary divided by 2080 hours).
  • The additional pay, and associated Facilities and Administrative and fringe costs, is processed separately through the University overload payroll process under a specific code for EWW and billed as a separate line item to the client/customer.

Definitions

Extended Work Week (EWW): a planned schedule, required by a customer or granting agency for successful program execution, exceeding the customary 40-hour workweek.

EWW Overload Pay: additional compensation payment made to an exempt staff member for working on episodic, customer-driven schedule requirements or critical need for specialized capabilities, specific, chargeable work activity exceeding the customary University workweek.

Institutional Base Salary (IBS): annual compensation paid by the University for an employee's appointment, whether that individual's time is spent on research, instruction, administration or service. IBS does not include additional, overload, bonus, or faculty summer compensation. IBS also excludes any income that an individual is permitted to earn outside of duties for the University.

History

Adopted: 03/17/2022. Approved by Vice President for Research.