Compensation Frequently Asked Questions

A non-exempt employee who works more than 8 hours in a work day or 40 hours in a work week must be paid one and one-half times his/her regular rate of pay for all overtime hours worked.  Employees should accurately record actual hours worked, including overtime hours.   Because most supervisors require prior approval to work overtime, employees should always check with their supervisor before working overtime hours.

One option is Make-Up Time:  This is a provision in CA regulations that allows an employee to request time off for a personal obligation and make up the time without receiving overtime pay under the following circumstances:

• It is requested by the employee for the employee’s personal convenience, not the employer’s;
• The employee may work no more than 11 hours on another day and no more than 40 hours in the work week, to make up the time off;
• The time must be made up within the same workweek (Monday through Sunday at USD);
• The employee must submit a signed written request in advance.  See the Makeup Time Request

Yes, supervisors can require staff employees to work overtime to meet the business needs of the university.  Try to give them advance notice, if possible, and ensure they are accurately recording their hours and being properly paid at the overtime rate, if applicable.  Sometimes it will help to reduce overtime hours if the supervisor can foresee the overtime and adjust the employee’s schedule to limit the total hours worked in the work week to 40 or fewer.  For example, if a Mon-Fri staff employee must work a Saturday event, the supervisor could give the employee a day off earlier in the week, say Monday, and avoid paying overtime for the Saturday work because it would not be in excess of 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week.  Again, the day off must be in the same work week.

Administrators, or exempt employees, are by definition exempt from the overtime and recordkeeping regulations of state and federal wage and hour law.  As such, they have more flexibility than non-exempt employees to vary their schedules according to business needs. However, exempt employees are also expected to work the number of hours it takes to get the job done, and should not be tracking their hours worked/time off on a formal hour-for-hour or day-for-day basis.  To do so will likely destroy the employee’s exempt status.

First, discuss it with your supervisor.  If your supervisor agrees that there have been substantial changes in the job that would warrant a review, you and your supervisor should work together to revise/update your job description to ensure that it accurately reflects your current job responsibilities and requirements.  Then, your supervisor would submit the updated job description to Human Resources with a request for review for reclassification.

Usually not more than a few weeks. The committee that conducts the position reviews meets as needed, up to two times per month, and results are usually available within a few days after the meeting.

Both staff and administrative positions are evaluated on a variety of factors, including education and experience required, types of responsibilities, reporting structure, financial responsibility, supervisory responsibility, as well as internal and external market data comparisons.

Generally, when positions are reclassified to a higher grade, the incumbent’s pay rate is increased to at least the minimum of the new pay grade. Additional rate increases are considered based on funding availability and the incumbent’s current pay rate. The department budget must support the rate increase. The department determines when the new rate will be effective, which is generally no sooner than the beginning of the next pay period following the re-classification.

In the past, departments have obtained budget approval for new positions first, then submitted the job description to Human Resources for classification.  The new process is to classify the position first, then submit it for budget approval.  Hiring supervisors are encouraged to use Human Resources as a tool to assist them with developing the job description and determining the appropriate salary and title for new position.  This way, when the new position is submitted for budget approval, the hiring supervisor can be confident that the requested salary will be adequate and equitable.  Because budgets are developed so far in advance, this requires planning on the part of hiring departments, who should be contacting Human Resources early in the process as they are developing new positions.

It is university policy that all casual/temporary/non-benefit based employees work less than 20 hours per week or less than 1000 hours per calendar year.  It is the responsibility of the hiring supervisor to monitor these employees' work hours to ensure that employees work less than the maximum 1000 hours each calendar year.  For employees with multiple assignments, the supervisors must communicate with each other to monitor total hours worked. 

To monitor these employees' work hours to ensure that they do not exceed the 1000 hour limit, supervisors may print a 1000 Hours Report from Oracle Manager Self-Service.  Once the 1000 hours is reached in the calendar year, supervisors will need to reduce the employee’s scheduled hours per week or end their temporary assignment. The employee would not become eligible for rehire at the university until the beginning of the next calendar year. Supervisors should print a Department Action Form (DAF) from Oracle Manager Self-Service to change end dates or end an assignment. 

Under limited circumstances, and with prior approval of Human Resources and the appropriate vice president, temporary/casual employees may continue to work past the 1000 hour limit.  However, they will become eligible for the university’s retirement benefit only, and the department will be responsible for the cost of the additional benefit.  The position will become a temporary, benefit based – retirement only -  position (BBR). Another option is to convert a temporary position to a regular, benefit based position through the budget approval process.

Please visit our Salary Structure Q&As page.