Will Work Comp Cover Lost Overtime?

Overtime refers to the time you work, outside your normal scheduled hours, if those hours make your weekly work hours total to more than 40 hours of work done.

Many employers pay hourly employees a higher rate for overtime than their normal wage.

Arizona follows the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act), which means a non-exempt employee must be paid more than their regular rate for any time worked above 40 hours in a week.

Please note that an exempt is a salaried employee who earns more than $47,476 per year and performs duties based on being highly skilled and formally trained. Non-exempt employees are paid an hourly rate, and duties can be whatever is required by the specific job.

In Arizona –

• The overtime pay rate is 5 times the regular wage
• An employer can require overtime work
• Comp time (or hours off in exchange for extra hours worked) is only allowed for government employees
• If the employee is within 40 hours for the week, the employer need not pay overtime for working nights, weekends, or holidays.
• Overtime is calculated weekly. So, if an employee works four 10-hour days to reach 40 hours a week, they don’t qualify for overtime.

WORK COMP AND OVERTIME

Many employees depend on overtime to supplement their income.

If you are injured at work, workers’ compensation entitles you to benefits for:

• Medical treatment
• Mileage reimbursement (for medical treatment that you can’t get in your local area)
• Wage replacement benefits for lost work time
• Temporary partial disability benefits
• Temporary total disability benefits
• Permanent partial disability benefits

Temporary disability benefits (partial or total) are meant to cover your wages if you have to return to work in a limited role or you’re no longer able to work at all for a specified period of time while you recover.

In both of those cases, your work comp benefits are calculated based on your average weekly wage before the disability, up to a state-mandated maximum. So, you must include pay stubs from 12 months of pay periods in your claim to average how much you actually earned, which includes overtime.

The calculation of your average weekly wage can include:

• Regular wages
• Vacation pay
• Overtime
• Holiday pay
• Bonuses and incentives

If you are looking for wage replacement for anticipated overtime, remember that wage and overtime disputes can be tricky. For example, some employers don’t allow overtime for employees who are receiving workers’ compensation or recovering from an injury. That means, if you can be restored to your previous job at the same wage rate, but you can’t work overtime, you can apply for workers’ compensation benefits based on temporary partial disability for the amount lost by losing overtime.

When you file your workers’ compensation claim, you must include any number of hours that you regularly work over 40 hours per week.

The workers’ compensation system ensures that every employee is compensated to cover medical treatment and living expenses while recovering from a work-related illness or injury. It also allows employers to settle work-related injury claims in a way that protects them from lawsuits.

Once a claim is filed, you’ll work directly with your employer’s insurance company to settle on an agreeable amount for benefits.

If you find that the offer isn’t enough, contact a workers’ compensation lawyer immediately to get what you deserve.