New Overtime Law Impacting US Janitorial Businesses

Heads up, commercial cleaning business owners! This is important news to keep your company squeaky clean. (Sorry, we had to make light of some serious United States legislation.) A new law came into effect on July 1st, 2024, and it impacts how you compensate your salaried staff. This might seem like a headache, but awareness of these new legal requirements can save you a big pile of trouble down the road.

Here are the high-level details: This law now protects lower-earning salaried employees from being overworked without overtime pay. This applies to anyone making less than $844 per week (roughly $43,888 annually). Your employees are required to be compensated at time and a half for any hours exceeding 40 in a week.

Think of it like this: We can't just call someone salaried to avoid paying overtime anymore. They deserve – and the law now requires – fair compensation for their extra time on the job. 

Why should you care? Keeping costs under control starts with keeping time under control.  Unplanned, unscheduled overtime will drive costs up, or worse, a disgruntled employee could take action against you for unpaid overtime. Your reputation and your margins are at risk.

The days of tracking hours on a spreadsheet with no governance or time stamps of working hours are now a RISK to your business. If you’re not digitally recording time on job sites by each employee, then you could be losing thousands of dollars every year with time theft and now additional overtime costs. Time theft or time fraud happens when you pay an employee for the time they didn’t actually work. This time can be stolen by signing in early and signing out late, or by taking unapproved breaks.

Swept can give you peace of mind by enabling your team to clock in, track breaks, capture time travel all from their mobile phone. We even support clocking in via a text message if they don’t have a Smartphone.  Our goal is to help you protect your business and your bottom line. 

So, how do you stay compliant with your payroll?

There are two main options:

1. Keep Salaries Above the Threshold: If you pay your managers or supervisors more than $844 per week (and this amount will increase in 2005), they remain exempt from overtime rules. This is the simplest route, but it might not fit everyone's budget.
2. Track Time and Pay Overtime: For those making under the threshold, you need to meticulously track their hours. This means using a reliable timekeeping system, such as Swept. Remember, accuracy is key! Once you have those hours, any logged time on site or potentially travel time will increase your hourly costs by 50%.

The US government has FAQ resources available here.

Swept wants to ensure our US-based commercial janitorial customers are operating legally, ethically, and efficiently. Remember, happy employees are productive employees, and fair pay is a big part of retention. We help you sleep well while we’re doing the dirty work for you.