As a benefit to staff required to work over the summer, and at the discretion of the President, the University typically institutes a scheduling change that shortens office hours and the workday during summer break without reducing employees’ base pay (“Summer Hours”).
For Summer 2023, Summer Hours begin on Monday, May 22, 2023, and continue through Friday, August 11, 2023. Regular office hours resume on Monday, August 14.
During this period of reduced work hours, compensation will not be impacted for eligible employees.
The following guidelines are provided to help in determining eligibility, and explain how to record time for payroll during the summer:
- Only employees who are eligible for full benefits (.75 FTE minimum) and scheduled to work a minimum of 8-hour days are eligible. Check with your supervisor if you work a non-standard schedule to determine how summer hours may impact your work schedule.
- For employees who record time, employees should indicate actual time in and actual time out on the timesheet. In other words, do not record “5 p.m.” if you leave at 4:30 p.m. The .5 of summer hours will auto-populate on your timesheet.
- For non-exempt (hourly) employees, only time worked over 40 hours in a workweek will be compensated at the overtime rate. Additional hours over the standard summer schedule, but less than 40 hours, will be compensated at an employee’s regular pay rate.
- Employees who record time should continue to include minutes/times of meal breaks on timesheets. As required by law, non-exempt (hourly) staff working six-hour shifts or longer must take an unpaid meal break of at least 30 minutes and paid rest breaks of at least 10 minutes (and no more than 20 minutes per WU policy) for every 4 hours of work, or the better part thereof. Breaks must fall at the approximate midpoint of each shift, or half of the shift in the case of rest breaks during an eight-hour shift.
- Any vacation, sick leave or personal preference time taken during the summer must be charged against time-off accruals assuming an eight (8) hour day, unless the employee works four and a half (4.5) hours in the day, in which case the half-hour summer hours release will be included as work time. Examples: you must use 8 hours of accrued time-off if you take the whole day off; 5 hours of accrued time off if you work 3 hours; 4 hours of accrued time-off if you work 4 hours; but only 3 hours of accrued time off if you work 4.5 hours.