HRDG 4550 - Premium Pay - Section F

Depending on the tour of duty, most General Schedule (GS), General Merit (GM), and Administratively Determined (AD) employees, regardless of their Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) status, are entitled to night differential, holiday pay, and Sunday differential.

Prevailing rate employees (wage grade) should see Section L for additional guidance.

Your entitlement to premium pay for night, holiday, and Sunday work is based on your work status during the pay period. The following table outlines your entitlements:

* Note: Employees being paid under Title 7 U.S.C. 2260 (Import-Export Act) are paid night differential and Sunday pay in accordance with APHIS Directive 402.3.

Yes, there is a limitation on premium pay for FLSA-exempt employees. Employees' premium pay may not exceed the rate of pay of GS-15, step 10. This includes pay for overtime, compensatory time, and premium pay for night, holiday, or Sunday work.

Note: There is no limitation on the amount of premium pay an FLSA-nonexempt employee may receive or an employee, regardless of FLSA status, earning premium pay for work under Title 7 U.S.C. 2260 (Import/Export work).

The value of the compensatory time is added to your base pay and other premium pay for the pay period in which you worked the overtime. This amount must not exceed the GS-15, step 10 rate of pay for the pay period. If this should occur, your timekeeper and supervisor must reduce your compensatory time that exceeds the GS-15, step 10 limit. It is permanently lost and you or your supervisor may not resubmit a claim for it to the National Finance Center in any subsequent pay period.

Title 5 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 550.105(a) establishes this biweekly maximum earnings limitation at the GS-15, step 10. However, Title 5 CFR Part 550.106 allows for waivers to the limitation in emergency situations. This authority allows the GS-15, step 10 earnings limitation to be applied on an annual rather than biweekly basis for work in connection with a declared emergency. The Secretary of Agriculture has the authority to waive the biweekly maximum earnings limitation for work in connection with such an emergency and allows an agency to instead use the annual limitation.

To obtain this waiver, a program must submit a request for a waiver in writing and include the following information:

• Complete description of the emergency (with any supporting documentation such as agency press releases, regulations, etc.),
• Who (name, title, and phone number) declared the emergency (see 5 CFR 550.106 [a] and 5 U.S.C. 5547[b][1]),
• The date the emergency was declared, and
• Expected duration of the emergency.

Your request should be addressed to the Director, MRP Human Resources Division, through your agency's Administrator and/or your program's Deputy Administrator/Director.

Night differential is paid at ten percent of the basic hourly rate.

Employees are entitled to night differential for time in official travel status if:

• The time in travel status occurs during periods of regularly scheduled night work,
• If they have a regularly scheduled tour of duty that includes regularly scheduled work between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.,
• Are temporarily assigned to a tour that includes night work.

You may be eligible for premium pay for night work during periods of paid absences as described in the following chart:

* If you have 8 or more hours of any combination of annual, sick, home, or shore leave during a pay period, no night differential is payable for any period of these types of leave during the pay period.

Example: You have a regularly scheduled tour of duty Monday through Friday of 2 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. with a 30-minute meal period between 6 and 6:30. You work the following schedule:

You should be paid as follows:

72 hours - Regular work (TC 01)
36 hours - Night Differential (TC 11) during regular work
4 hours - Annual leave (TC 61)
4 hours - Sick leave (TC 62)

Night differential is not paid for any periods of annual and sick leave, regardless of when the leave was used because 8 hours of leave was taken during the pay period.

As a supervisor, you must pay your full-time and part-time employees holiday pay for non-overtime work on legal holidays.

Intermittent employees are excluded. These employees are paid at the regular rate for work on a holiday. Intermittents receive no pay if they do not work on a holiday.

Holiday pay is paid at twice the hourly rate of pay for up to 8 hours of work performed on a holiday during hours that correspond to a regularly scheduled daily tour of duty (5 CFR 550.103). Your employees must be paid for a minimum of 2 hours, even if they work less than that (5 CFR 550.131[c] and 5 USC 5546[c]).

Your employees will receive overtime pay or compensatory time for overtime work on a holiday. Compensatory time may not be granted for non-overtime work on a holiday.

Employees are entitled to holiday premium pay for non-overtime work on the following holidays:

Example: Your employee has a regularly scheduled standard tour of duty of Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with a 30-minute meal break. The employee works 8 hours a day Monday through Friday during Week 1, and 8 hours a day Monday through Thursday of Week 2. You order your employee to work on the second Friday of the pay period, a legal holiday, from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. You compensate your employee as follows:

72 hours - Regular time (TC 01)
2 hours - Overtime over 40 (TC 21)
8 hours - Holiday worked (TC 31)
8 hours - Holiday administrative leave (TC 66)

Note:

• Because the work on the holiday between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. is non-overtime work, compensatory time may not be granted for this time.
• If the overtime (4:30 - 6:30) is regular overtime work, your employee is entitled to 2 hours of overtime pay and 30 minutes of night differential.
  If the overtime is irregular or occasional, compensatory time may be granted in lieu of the 2 hours of overtime pay. (Compensatory time may be granted for regular overtime work only if the employee works under a flexible work schedule.)

If, however, you ordered your employee to work hours on the holidays that are either before or after his/her regularly scheduled tour, then you would pay the employee overtime for those hours.

Use the same example as above, except that the hours ordered to work on the holiday are 4 a.m. to 6 a.m., and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. In this scenario, the employee would be paid overtime for these hours (5 CFR 550.103).

Employees with a first-40-hour tour of duty are entitled to:

• Time off on holidays which occur within their basic workweek.
• Overtime if the holiday occurs after your employee has worked at least 32 hours in the administrative workweek and the hours worked before or after the holiday are in excess of 32 hours.

If your shift spans two calendar days, then one shift is identified as your holiday and you may be paid 8 hours of holiday pay for that shift.

It is not appropriate to pay you for less than 8 hours for a holiday shift during which you worked a total of 8 hours even though part of it was on the holiday and part of it was not (CG: B-202626, 6/15/82).

In every fourth year following the year of the Presidential election, January 20 is considered a legal holiday for premium pay purposes if you work in the Washington, D.C., area on that day, regardless of whether Washington is your official or temporary duty station (5 U.S.C. 6103[c]). You are not entitled to holiday premium pay for non-overtime work on Inauguration Day if you work outside of the Washington area, regardless of whether or not Washington is your official duty station. There is no “in lieu of” day for those on alternative work schedules.

The Washington, D.C. area is defined as:

• The District of Columbia,
• Montgomery and Prince George's Counties (Maryland), and
• Fairfax and Arlington Counties and the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church (Virginia).

If you are on military or court leave, you are entitled to holiday premium pay if:

• The holiday work is regularly scheduled, and
• You would have been required to work had you not been away on military or court leave.

You are not entitled to holiday premium pay for work on local, State, territorial or foreign holidays. Although you may be granted excused absence (administrative leave) for local holidays, if you are required to work on one of these days, or another non-workday established by administrative order, you are paid at the straight-time rate for non-overtime work.

Example: You and your co-workers work in the X-ville office where a local holiday causes your office building to be closed. Your co-worker is required to work in the X-ville office that day. Your co-worker is not entitled to holiday premium pay because the local holiday is not a legal holiday for premium pay purposes.

An administratively uncontrollable event means an event that is outside of the executive branch (e.g., unforeseen circumstances such as a breakdown of equipment or travel to an event that is not controlled by the executive branch and an immediate official necessity for travel exists). Administratively controllable means that the executive branch has control and/or input into when an event occurs.

You are not eligible for Sunday premium pay during periods of paid absences (Register Volume 72, Number 50, dated March 15, 2007):

Sunday pay is not paid if your absence is due to:

Absence without leave (TC 72)
Annual leave (TC 61)
Compensatory time off (TC 64)
Compensatory time off for religious observance (TC 60)
Court leave (TC 66)
Credit hours used (TC 50)
Emergency military leave (TC 68)
Excused absence (TC 66)
Funeral leave (TC 66)
Holidays (TC 66)
Home leave (TC 69)
Leave without pay (TC 71)
Military leave (TC 65)
Shore leave (TC 59)
Sick leave (TC 62)

Time Off Awards (Prefix 61, TC 66)

Note: Intermittent employees are not eligible for Sunday premium pay.