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Fluctuating workweek overtime colloquially known as Chinese overtime. That is labor remuneration for workers who continue to work outside the prescribed working hours. Employees who work overtime, prolongs the working hours and increase their extra workload should receive reasonable remuneration. Some laborers work different hours each week. No matter how many hours a week they work, the employees who work frequently can only receive a fixed salary. On average, employees work 40 hours per week, and if someone works more than 40 hours, they can use fluctuating workweek overtime methods to get extra overtime and defend their rights. This approach become more attractive to employers as overtime have increased, as one feature of the scheme is that overtime paid to employees under the scheme decreases.

Conditions
The first part is to explain the conditions to be met in order to receive overtime pay. Firstly, workers must have guaranteed weekly pay, which is paid to employees as long as they complete any work during the working day. Secondly, if an employee works more than 40 hours a week, or 8 hours a day or consecutive days, you are eligible for overtime pay whether you are an hourly worker, a monthly worker, or a salaried employee. Thirdly, employees’ working hours must fluctuate from workweek to workweek. But there is no rules on the range of working hours per week. Fourthly, the employer and employee must have a clear "mutual understanding" and a fixed salary is compensation for all hours worked in a week (except overtime). Moreover, the fixed wages must be sufficient to provide compensation at a normal rate not less than the minimum wage. What's more, employees tho work more than 40 hours per week must receive 50% overtime in addition to a fixed weekly salary. However, the working week need to be calculated to determine the hours worked each workweek. Some people still have erratic workweeks, which can lead to trouble calculating wages. For this reason, a better approach is to have a pay cycle that can be weekly or two-week, so the pay cycle will correspond to the number of hours worked per week.

Calculations
The second section mainly introduces how to calculate the fluctuating workweek overtime pay. In this part, the two methods of calculating overtime pay will be compared. The first common calculation assumes that employees are paid weekly rather than hourly. The normal salary of an employee is calculated by dividing his/her weekly salary by 40, and the overtime pay is 1.5 times his/her weekly salary. For example, if an employee is paid $1600 for 40 hours per week, his or her normal salary is $40 per hour ($1600/40) and his/her overtime pay is $60 ($40*1.5). If the employee works 50 hours, the employer shall pay the employee a total of $2200 ($40*40 hours + $60*10 hours).

Secondly, using the fluctuating workweek overtime method, the employee’s salary will be regarded as the normal salary of all working hours per week including overtime. Therefore, employers only need to pay half of the normal rate of overtime to meet the wage-hours requirements. For instance, let’s say the guaranteed wage for the employee is $1200 per week, and the employee works 50 hours per week. So the salary is $32 per hour ($1600/50). In this case, employees work more than 40 hours. That means 10 of those hours are calculated as overtime payment. The overtime payment is "time and half rate". The employee in this example has received the "time rate", and the "half rate" should now be paid to the employee who works more than 40 hours of overtime. To do this, the employer needs to divide the $32.00 overtime payment in half to $16.00 per hour and multiply that by 10 hours to $160.00 [$16.00 per hour X 10 hours = $160.00]. The employee will be entitled to an additional $40 for 10 hours of overtime per week. Thus, the total salary in this week is $1760 ($1600+$160). Please note the more hours word per week, the lower the normal hourly rate. Regular rates can go all the way down to the minimum wage, but not below it. For example, the minimum wage in a certain area is $20, and employees can work a maximum of 80 hours a week ($1600/$20=80). So that is the difference between the two calculations. Obviously, under the same conditions, the fluctuating overtime payment is less than that of the normal calculation.

Advantages and Limitations
“The fluctuating workweek method presents benefits for both employers and employees,”according to Steven Ferenczy, an attorney with Fisher Phillips in Atlanta. Being able to pay half of overtime, rather than 1.5 times, is an obvious advantage. As an example, public service organizations that employ a large number of public safety personnel can achieve significant budget savings by paying substantial overtime. For employers, the method might help reduce labor costs rather than hourly wages, and creating a more efficient and effective workforce. Some people are hourly worker, but often extend an hour’s work to two hours in order to get more salary. This not only causes employers to overpay, but also reduces work efficiency. The main advantage for employees is that they receive the same fixed salary even if they work less than 40 hours in a given week.

Despite the potential benefits of this approach, fluctuating workweek overtime payment has not been used as often as expected. There are several reasons. To implement the system, the government requires an employee to be told that his or her basic salary is used to pay for all working hours, and that his or her overtime will be paid on a half-day basis. In addition, many employers shy away from the fluctuating workweek overtime system because employees have to know how to pay, because it sometimes leads to problems with employee morale and retention. Furthermore, the calculation of the "regular rate" upon which all overtime is based will change every week. Therefore, the employer must either assign these computations to the employee or purchase/design a software program to accommodate the necessary computations. These management challenges sometimes discourage employers from implementing this approach. Moreover, different places have different overtime laws. Currently, some states do not allow the fluctuating workweek method. Melissa Siebert, an attorney with BakerHostetler in Chicago, explained some states, like California, have stricter overtime payment laws that require daily overtime payments. So it is a limitation that the employer does not know if it is allowed to use. Because it remains unsettled or unclear as to whether the method is permitted, Siebert said.

Safeguard
The last section discusses how to safeguard the legitimate rights of employees and employers. In Australia, employers can require employees to work reasonably overtime. As long as the following points are taken into consideration, overtime work is reasonable. At first, the health and safety risks of working overtime are very important. Guidelines to help you condor the health and safety effects of long working hours can be found on Safe Work Australia website. Secondly, employers need to know their workers' personal information, including their family responsibilities. And the workers can get a higher salary while working overtime. Additionally, employees get enough notice that they may have to work overtime. Employees can refuse to work overtime if they have stated that they cannot work overtime or the request is unreasonable.

There are some institutions, like law firms, that can help you with salary issues. For example, the Morgan & Morgan can help employees who are underpaid or forced to work overtime sue their employers and compensate them for lost wages. According to the data, over the past five years, the company has handled more than 6,000 lawsuits and recovered millions of dollars on behalf of clients. Of course, there are similar institutions everywhere. For employers, they can find some Human Resources managers to design and set the salary structure. They can help companies define pay rates, calculate the overtime and manage employees in a fair and legal way. But in China, many employees are afraid that their employers will have a bad opinion of them or even lose their jobs, so they will not sue their companies or employers. What’s more, these people can choose to negotiate with the company first. If overtime payment is not resolved, please sue them.