Student Employee Pay Practices

More information about student employees can be found in the Student Employment Administrative policy.

Student employees are eligible for:

• Holiday pay (eligibility varies; see the Student Employment Work Rules for more information)
• Shift differential
• Overtime
• On call
   

Student employees are not eligible for:

• Personal holidays
• Call back

Shift Differential for Student Employees

Eligibility and Definitions

Student employees are eligible for shift differential if their regularly scheduled shifts of six hours or more begin before 6:00 a.m. or end on or after 7:00 p.m.

• “Work shift” means both a period of work that has a predetermined starting and ending time and the regularly scheduled configuration or pattern of work periods and days off.
• “Regularly scheduled” means the configuration repeats itself on a weekly, biweekly or monthly basis. Eligibility for shift differential is determined based on an individual's work hours. It is not based on an existing shift that any number of people might work in addition to other variable hours.

Students who are normally scheduled for day hours (hours that end before 7 p.m.) and are needed to work extra hours beyond their normal shift are not eligible for shift differential. They may be eligible for overtime if the total number of hours in the workweek exceeds 40 hours.

Students who work a day shift, and come back later that same day to work hours that end on or after 7 p.m., are not eligible for shift differential.

Examples of Shift Differential Eligibility

Example One

A student who works this schedule every week is eligible for shift differential for all hours worked because each shift ends after 7 p.m. and is at least 6 hours in length.

Example Two

A student who works this schedule every week is eligible for shift differential for hours worked on Mondays and Fridays because those shifts end after 7 p.m. and are 6 hours in length.

The Thursday hours are not eligible because they are less than 6 consecutive hours. The Wednesday hours are not eligible because they occur between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Example Three

This is the same schedule as Example Two. In this case, we have a special event, known in advance that will change the hours on Thursday. The employee is not eligible for shift differential on Thursday. Although this shift ends after 7 p.m. and is more than 6 hours, it is not regularly scheduled, even though the hours are known in advance.

Example Four

Week one:

Week two:

Week three:

Presuming this three-week schedule does not repeat itself, a student who works this schedule is not eligible for shift differential. This is an example of a worker who is not regularly scheduled.

Example Five

A student who works this schedule every week is eligible for shift differential for hours worked Monday through Friday. The hours on Saturday are not eligible for shift differential because they are not regularly scheduled. The Monday through Friday hours total 35 hours which are paid the hourly wage plus shift differential. The first 5 hours on Saturday (2 p.m.–7 p.m.) are paid the hourly wage with no shift differential. At this point the employee has worked 40 hours. The next 3.5 hours are overtime. The employee is paid the hourly rate at time and one half for these hours.

Example Six

A student who works this schedule every week is eligible for shift differential. The employee's shift was expanded by 1.5 hours each day. Because the shift was normally eligible for shift differential, the extra hours will also be paid shift differential. The total number of hours in the week is 42.5. The last 2.5 hours are eligible for overtime. Overtime is calculated at time and one half the hourly rate and time and one half the shift differential.