A Complete Guide to Nevada Overtime Laws

Some states follow federal law when it comes to overtime pay. Others have added some of their own regulations. This means that companies and employers can feel confused – it’s a lot to keep track of. But we at actiTIMe have done all the work so you don’t have to! Here’s everything you need to know about Nevada overtime laws.

What Are Nevada Overtime Laws?

At the federal level, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) provides a number of regulations having to do with overtime pay, but Nevada has passed a number of state-specific laws that employers need to know about. If you are unsure about what is and isn’t considered overtime, feel free to read our guide before continuing below.

Before calculating overtime rates and pay, each company has to decide what workweek they will establish. It can start on Sunday, like with most companies, but can just as easily begin on a Saturday or Wednesday. It all depends on a company’s needs. The main thing to remember is that once a workweek has been set, it can’t change. If there are different types of positions in your company, for example, accountants or sales representatives, then they can have separate workweeks so long as they remain consistent.

Nevada overtime laws, when it comes to the workweek, are the same as those federally. Once someone works more than 40 hours in one weekly cycle, every additional hour must be counted as overtime. This can’t carry over into the following weeks.

Nevada has an additional law when it comes to the workday (any 24-hour period): working for more than 8 hours immediately qualifies employees for overtime. This only applies, however, for workers who make less than 1.5 times the minimum wage.

Please note, though, that Nevada employers can strike a deal with their employees for an alternative approach to the workday regime. For example, working four ten-hour days with a three-day weekend. But this is generally an exception to the rule and should only be done in consultation with legal experts through a collective bargaining process..

Employers in Nevada can offer overtime compensation in two ways:

• Overtime pay: every hour an employee works over the limit earns them 1.5x their regular rate of pay.
• Compensatory time: every hour an employee works over the limit earns them 1.5 hours of paid vacation.

The amount of hours of compensatory time that employees can save up can’t exceed 240. Any overtime hours worked after that point must be paid out at overtime rates.

Employers can ask (and expect) their employees to work overtime unless they are in special positions, like nurses or paralegals.

If an employee is required to set up or take anything down as part of the job, these count towards their hours.

The time that employees spend waiting for a job to begin also counts towards their hours.

Nevada employers don’t need to pay overtime work performed on weekends or holidays.

How Do I Calculate Overtime Pay in Nevada?

Nevada has two official minimum wages, and so you will have to be aware of this when calculating overtime rates. If an employee receives health benefits, then they may be paid a minimum wage of $7.25 (overtime rate: $10.88), but workers without said benefits are entitled to $8.25 (overtime rate: $12.38). After July 1st, 2020, these rates will be increased to $8.00 and $9.00 respectively.

A monthly paycheck for an employee without health benefits might look like this:

As mentioned above, an employee without benefits who earns less than $12.38 before overtime is entitled to claim overtime pay for any hours worked over 8 in one workday.

There are some more factors that you need to take into account when you’re calculating regular and overtime rates of pay.

Workers who make a commission, particularly salespeople, will need to have some extra calculations to figure out what their regular and overtime rates of pay will be.

Calculating someone’s regular pay in this case means adding their base salary to the commission earned for that week and dividing it by the total number of hours worked. So, if the employee earns minimum wage (without health benefits) before the commission, their regular pay might look something like this:

Once you know the regular pay rate for a given week, you can calculate their overtime pay:

If your employees are entitled to a bonus then you may have to factor this in when calculating their regular pay. To do so, you add the employee’s earnings from their base rate, add the total bonus and then divide that number by the hours they worked in the bonus period. This is their regular pay.

If the bonus amounts to $1000, the bonus period is monthly, the worker earns minimum wage and was on the job for 160 hours, this will be their calculation:

You can then take the regular rate and use it to calculate overtime pay for that month.

Whenever you need some assistance with calculating overtime pay for employees, utilize actiTIME overtime calculator, which is specifically designed to facilitate this process for you and make the results as accurate as possible.

Who Is and Isn’t Qualified for Overtime Pay in Nevada?

Not every type of worker is guaranteed overtime pay rates by the FLSA. They were originally designed in order to protect blue-collar workers and manual laborers from exploitation, and present strictures reflect this.

Nevada workers have to meet at least one of three conditions in order to qualify for overtime pay:

• They must earn less than $12.38 an hour if they do not earn health benefits, or under $10.89 if they do;
• They cannot have reached an agreement with their employees (through approved collective bargaining) that forfeits their right to overtime pay;
• They cannot work in an industry that is exempt from overtime pay (see below).

If your company earns less than $250,000 a year, then they may not be required to pay overtime.

Manual laborers are automatically protected by the FLSA and qualify for overtime – these may include construction workers, tradespeople, cashiers and more. Nurses, police officers, paramedics, firefighters and paralegals also qualify for overtime.

There are some workers who do not qualify for overtime pay under the FLSA and Nevada state law if they take home more than $455 a week:

Executives (who manage more than two people full-time);

Administrative workers;

Non-manual professional workers (artists, teachers, programmers);

External salespeople and salespeople who earn a commission with a base pay of over 1.5x the minimum wage, provided that their pay is made up of commissions by at least 50%;

Outside buyers;

Independent contractors;

Railroad and airline workers;

Retail and service workers;

Any worker who has reached a collective bargaining agreement that stipulates other conditions for overtime;

Certain agricultural workers;

Salespeople and mechanics engaged in servicing or selling trucks, cars and farm equipment;

Drivers, loaders, drivers’ helpers, motor mechanics, driving professionals who make local deliveries and are paid per-trip or by any other delivery-based payment plan;

Certain live-in employees.

In case of ambiguity, the FLSA and Nevada state law should be consulted to check if a worker qualifies for overtime.

Track Overtime Using actiTIME!

Once you’ve mastered Nevada overtime laws, you can move on to keeping tabs on how much your workers are earning.

But it can be a hassle to keep everything in mind, which is why actiTIME has developed software to ease the process and empower you to know exactly how much your workers are entitled to! Read on to find out more about our services and pricing.