Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Kuhio Day is an OT Day on State and County projects

Prince Kuhio Day
As a reminder to contractors working on State or County construction projects, Prince Kuhio Day is State Holiday and therefore all hours worked on Thursday March 26, 2015, need to be paid at the overtime rate. 

Calculating the correct OT rate
To calculate the overtime rate under Hawaii's prevailing wage law, Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 104, Hours and Wages of Employees on Public Works, take the basic hourly rate and multiply by 1.5*  then add the fringe benefit hourly rate amount to get the overtime prevailing wage rate.  For example, looking at the current applicable wage rate schedule, #485 for the prevailing wage rate of Carpenter the schedule shows $62.96.  Broken down it is a $42.25 basic hourly rate and $20.71 fringe benefit hourly rate.

Carpenter basic hourly rate $42.25 x 1.5 = 63.375 now add the hourly fringe benefit rate of $20.71 and get $84.08 for the overtime rate for carpenters on March 26, 2015.

How can the overtime prevailing rate be paid?
For contractors with a collective bargaining agreement in place, the certified payroll will show the carpenter being paid at least $63.38 per hour and show at least $20.71 per hour paid to the union trust fund for fringe benefits.  Other contractors who pay benefits on an hourly basis, the amount of basic hourly rate and the amount of fringe benefits paid to a third party trustee will be determined by the contractors own agreement with employees, the two amounts must add up to $84.08 per hour for all work done on March 26, 2015.

For contractors who are not parties to a collective bargaining agreement  or do not pay their fringe benefits on an hourly basis, the certified payroll must show a basic hourly rate of $84.08 for overtime work, because no credit for fringe benefits can be taken in overtime when paying fringe benefits on a monthly basis.  

Fringe benefit credit applies only for straight time.
For contractors that pay their workers benefits on a monthly basis, there is a formula that can be used to calculate an hourly credit, but the credit only applies to straight time hours.  The formula can be found in Hawaii Administrative Rule 12-22-4.  To calculate the hourly fringe benefit credit for straight time hours, take the amount paid by the employer and divide it by 173 and that quotient is the hourly credit amount that can be taken for straight time hours.

*Act 165, Regular Session 2015 modified the law to provide higher overtime rates than 1.5 where collective bargaining rates prevail in classifications.  Wage Rate Schedule 486 is the first schedule to direct overtime on Sunday at 2 x the basic hourly rate for some classifications, and 3 x the basic hourly rate on Labor Day.  See Note 13 on WRS 486. 


No comments:

Post a Comment

This is a limited public forum that serves as an official community page for the Wage Standards Division, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to share information about the work of the Wage Standards Division and related issues to the people of Hawaii and our friends outside of Hawaii.

We welcome your comment on our topic or post, but please comment with “Aloha” since this page is family friendly. Please take personal responsibility for and be respectful in your comments.


If your comment is deleted per the provisions below, you have the option of sending your comment by sending an email that does not violate any laws, or by sending a hardcopy version of your comment to the following address:



Recipient Pamela Martin
Mailing address 830 Punchbowl St., Honolulu, HI 96813

email address: Pamela.b.martin@hawaii.gov



RE: Deletion of Comments.

We will delete a comment, content, or expression (“comment”) that disrupts, disturbs, impedes, is contrary to, is inappropriate for, or interferes with function of and ability of this limited public forum to fulfill its purpose, such as a comment that is:


■Off-topic;


■Profane or sexually explicit;


■Using an offensive term that targets a specific individual(s) or groups, including a term based on race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation;


■Invasive of a person's privacy;


■A commercial solicitation or advertisement, a chain letter, or a pyramid scheme;


■Containing personal information such as a driver license number, a social security number, and other information protected by law;


■Disclosing any detail about an ongoing investigation or court or administrative proceeding that could prejudice the process or interfere with the rights or claims of a person or entity;


■Part of or is a repetitive post copied and pasted by multiple users;


■Spam or could constitute spam; and


■Speech for which content-based restrictions are permitted, including incitement, obscenity, defamation, speech integral to criminal conduct, so-called “fighting words,” child pornography, fraud, true threats, and speech presenting some grave and imminent threat the Government has the power to prevent.



This page is subject to amendment or modification at any time.



Thank you for taking the time to read this page.