West Virginia Code § 21-5C-3

Maximum hours; overtime compensation
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(a) On and after July 1, 1980, no employer shall employ any of his employees for a workweek
longer than forty hours, unless such employee receives compensation for his employment in
excess of the hours above specified at a rate of not less than one and one-half times the
regular rate at which he is employed.
(b) As used in this section the "regular rate" at which an employee is employed shall be
deemed to include all remuneration for employment paid to, or on behalf of, the employee,
but shall not be deemed to include:
(1) Sums paid as gifts; payments in the nature of gifts made at Christmas time or on other
special occasions, as a reward for service, the amounts of which are not measured by or
dependent on hours worked, production, or efficiency;
(2) Payments made for occasional periods when no work is performed due to vacation,
holiday, illness, failure of the employer to provide slufficient work, or other similar cause;
reasonable payments for traveling expenses, osr other expenses, incurred by an employee in
the furtherance of his employer's interests and properly reimbursable by the employer, and
other similar payments to an employee whiich are not made as compensation for his hours of
employment; g
(3) Sums paid in recognition of services performed during a given period if either: (a) Both
the fact that payment is to be made and the amount of the payment are determined at the
sole discretion of the employer at or near the end of the period and not pursuant to any prior
contract, agreement or promise causing the employee to expect such payments regularly; or
(b) the payments are made pursuant to a bona fide profit-sharing plan or trust or bona fide
thrift or savings plan, meeting the requirements of the commissioner set forth in appropriate
regulation which he shall issue, having due regard among other relevant factors, to the
extent to which the amounts paid to the employee are determined without regard to hours of
worWk, production or efficiency; or (c) the payments are talent fees (as such talent fees are
defined and delimited by regulations of the commissioner) paid to performers, including
announcers, on radio and television programs;
(4) Contributions irrevocably made by an employer to a trustee or third person pursuant to a
bona fide plan for providing old-age, retirement, life, accident, or health insurance or similar
benefits for employees;
(5) Extra compensation provided by a premium rate paid for certain hours worked by the
employee in any day or workweek because such hours are hours worked in excess of eight in
a day or in excess of the maximum workweek applicable to such employee under subsection
(a) or in excess of the employee's normal working hours or regular working hours, as the
case may be;
(6) Extra compensation provided by a premium rate paid for work by the employee on
Saturdays, Sundays, holidays or regular days of rest, or on the sixth or seventh day of the
workweek, where such premium rate is not less than one and one-half times the rate
established in good faith for like work performed in nonovertime hours on other days; or
(7) Extra compensation provided by a premium rate paid to the employee, in pursuance of an
applicable employment contract or collective bargaining agreement, for work outside of the
hours established in good faith by the contract or agreement as the basic, neormal or regular
workweek where such premium rate is not less than one and one-half times the rate
established in good faith by the contract or agreement for like work perrformed during such
workweek.
(c) No employer shall be deemed to have violated subsection (a) by employing any employee
for a workweek in excess of the maximum workweek applicatble to such employee under
subsection (a) if such employee is employed pursuant to a bona fide individual contract, or
pursuant to an agreement made as a result of collective bargaining by representatives of
employees, if the duties of such employee necessitate irregular hours of work, and the
contract or agreement (1) specifies a regular rate of pay of not less than the minimum hourly
rate provided in section two and compensatiosn at not less than one and one-half times such
rate for all hours worked in excess of such maximum workweek, and (2) provides a weekly
guaranty of pay for not more than sixty hours based on the rates so specified.
(d) No employer shall be deemed to have violated subsection (a) by employing any employee
for a workweek in excess of thee maximum workweek applicable to such employee under
such subsection if, pursuant to an agreement or understanding arrived at between the
employer and the emploLyee before performance of the work, the amount paid to the
employee for the number of hours worked by him in such workweek in excess of the
maximum workweek applicable to such employee under such subsection:
(1) In the case of an employee employed at piece rates, is computed at piece rates not less
than one and one-half times the bona fide piece rates applicable to the same work when
perWformed during nonovertime hours; or
(2) In the case of an employee performing two or more kinds of work for which different
hourly or piece rates have been established, is computed at rates not less than one and one-
half times such bona fide rates applicable to the same work when performed during
nonovertime hours; or
(3) Is computed at a rate not less than one and one-half times the rate established by such
agreement or understanding as the basic rate to be used in computing overtime
compensation thereunder: Provided, That the rate so established shall be authorized by
regulation by the commissioner as being substantially equivalent to the average hourly
earnings of the employee, exclusive of overtime premiums, in the particular work over a
representative period of time; and if (i) the employee's average hourly earnings for the
workweek exclusive of payments described in subdivisions (1) through (7) of subsection (b)
are not less than the minimum hourly rate required by applicable law, and (ii) extra overtime
compensation is properly computed and paid on other forms of additional pay required to be
included in computing the regular rate.
(e) Extra compensation paid as described in subdivisions (5), (6) and (7) of subsection (b)
shall be creditable toward overtime compensation payable pursuant to this section.
(f) (1) Employees of county and municipal governments may receive, in accordance with this
subsection and in lieu of overtime compensation, compensatory time off at a rate not less
than one and one-half hours for each hour of employment for which overtime is required
pursuant to this section.
(2) County and municipal governments may provide compensatory time under subdivision (1)
of this subsection, only pursuant to a written agreement arrived at between the employer
and employee before the performance of the work, and recorded in the employer's record of
hours worked, and if the employee has not accrued comapensatory time in excess of the limit
prescribed in subdivision (3) of this subsection. Any written agreement may be modified at
the request of either the employer or the employeel, but under no circumstances shall
changes in the agreement deny an employee csompensatory time heretofore acquired.
(3) An employee may accrue up to four hunidred eighty hours of compensatory time if the
employee's work is a public safety agctivity, an emergency response activity or a seasonal
activity. An employee engaged in other work for a county or municipal government may
accrue up to two hundred forty hours of compensatory time. Any such employee who has
accrued four hundred eighty or two hundred forty hours of compensatory time, as the case
may be, shall for additional overtime hours of work, be paid overtime compensation. If
compensation is paid to an employee for accrued compensatory time off, such compensation
shall be paid at the regular rate earned by the employee at the time the employee receives
such payment.
(4) An employee who has accrued compensatory time off authorized to be provided under
subWdivision (1) of this subsection shall, upon termination of employment, be paid for the
unused compensatory time at a rate of compensation not less than:
(A) The average regular rate received by such employee during the last three years of the
employee's employment; or
(B) The final regular rate received by such employee, whichever is higher.
(5) An employee of a county or municipal government:
(A) Who has accrued compensatory time off authorized to be provided under subdivision (1)
of this subsection; and
(B) Who has requested the use of such compensatory time, shall be permitted by the
employee's employer to use such time within a reasonable time after making the request if
the use of the compensatory time does not unduly disrupt the operation of the public agency.
Compensatory time must be used within one year from the time it was acquired.
(6) For purposes of this subsection the terms "compensatory time" and "compensatory time
off" mean hours during which an employee is not working, which are not counted as hours
worked during the applicable workweek or other work period for purposes of overtime
compensation, and for which the employee is compensated at the employee's regular rate.

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