08

Bonuses, benefit contributions, and premium pay: what belongs in the regular rate and what doesn't

A raise disguised as a “discretionary bonus,” a shift differential mislabeled as a “premium” — the Act looks at what a payment actually is, not what the pay stub calls it. This chapter sorts the payments employers routinely make outside the base wage into what must be added to the regular rate and what the law genuinely lets an employer leave out.

In this chapter

• +Why a bonus must be genuinely discretionary — not just called one — to stay out of the regular rate
• +Which overtime premiums an employer can credit against the Act's overtime requirement, and which extra-pay plans still owe more on top
• +How reimbursements, show-up pay, and call-back pay are treated, and why a payment's substance decides the answer, not its label