Posted on 07/20/2013 5:31:08 AM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
My son recently started a job that has a 37.5 hour work week and asked me why 37.5 instead of 40? I couldn't really come up with a good answer. You could say it saves the employer money assuming they get the same amount of productivity but I don't know if that actually happens. Or it could be the person who founded the business came from a country where a 37.5 hour work week is more common than here in the USA. I did a lot of searching and found some companies transitioning to 37.5 but no real explanation as to why or what the advantage was. So I turn to the people who know it all, the Freepers, for answers.
Is 37.5 hours a week a part-time job or a full-time job, and will he be able to collect benefits?
5 30-minute lunches = 2.5 hours
40 - 2.5 = 37.5 hours
in a 40 hr week he isn’t getting paid to eat lunch
Two and a half hours a week multiplied by three shifts and by the number of employees saves the corporate weenies a lot of money for their golden parachutes.
Correct, one word answer: Obamacare.
Two words. OBAMACARE MANDATES
I think this is because of laws in California (and elsewhere I presume)
The employer wants to avoid paying overtime.
The law is, there is overtime above 8 each day. It seems to me therefore, the employer is moving the “work day” as a result to 7.5 / day.
This leaves a half hour buffer.
Seems to me, it is that simple.
this also allows a slightly higher perceived hourly rate for the actual time at the job.
a 40 hr $15/hour job = $600/wk
“paying” $600 for 37.5 translates as $16/hr
or looked at another way, an employer can pay $16/hr for 37.5 hrs instead of $15 for 40 hrs and it costs the same amt on a weekly basis
8 hour day with a 30 min unpaid lunch. Pretty common for non-exempts whose schedules need to sync with those of 8 hour a day exempts or who are in workplaces that for one reason or another need to be on strict 8 hour shifts or are only open 9-5. It also gives a bit of OT flexibility but companies that really want to avoid OT tend to have 30 or 32 hour base schedules.
He’s off the clock for his lunch time.
He will also find that he is required to take those lunches, and if he doesn’t he will be docked pay for them as if he had. This is federal law. He will be permitted only highly-regulated breaks.
The cell-phone restrictions are logical. They can be imposed for reasons of safety (to prevent workers from being distracted and injured) and security (not giving out details of operations to competitors) as well as productivity. Most people will never get anything done if they have access
to a smartphone.
Lunch breaks are unpaid for non-exempt employees according to the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
This looks like an 7-1/2 hour workday.
My guess if it is a factory, the base hours are 37.5 to prevent having to pay overtime if they need workers to work a couple of extra hours during a week. I have heard of this before.
He’s probably on wages. The salaried people probably work 8 hours per day, and take a half hour off for lunch, making their day 8-1/2 hours total. The wage earners probably use to do the same thing, but then some law said they had to get 15 minute breaks in the morning and afternoon. To keep things synchronized, and in stead of adding a half hour of work for the salaried employees, they cut the wage earners day by half an hour. Typical example of the government trying to improve the lives of the workers, but actually screwing them.
Everything the government decries, will hurt you, one way or another.
Fewer employees working 40 hour weeks costs the company less in benefits than more full-time employees working fewer hours.
Try again.
He’s getting an unpaid 30 minute lunch / day. That’s all that it. I believe for purposes of 0bamacare it’s still considered full time.
Unlikely, unless there are a large number of sub-30 hour part timers in shop, and the company is very small. Obamacare impacts any company with more than 50 full-time equivalent workers, which it considers 30 hours or more.
Since this is a factory, it sounds like a 2.5 hour buffer between paying the hourly rate and time and half.
If the employer fine tunes things as described, I bet they punch a time clock also. Some do that today over their office computers.
Years ago all jobs at Merrill Lynch offices were 37.5 hours.
Why doesn’t he ask his company? Seems to be a fair enough question.
Federal law does not mandate meal breaks:
However, most state law does:
Are Employers Legally Required to Give Employees Breaks?
Also, meal breaks are defined in most union contracts.
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