paid lunch for some unpaid for others

bbhlaxmom

We are trying to entice and reward some employees for working 4 nights which are hours we really need covered but most don't want to work. Can we offer to pay their 30 minute lunch but not pay all employees lunch break?

Geno

Not sure I understand your question; do you mean a different paid/unpaid lunch break arrangement for people on the same shift or a different paid/unpaid lunch break arrangement for people on different shifts?

bbhlaxmom

Sorry for the confusion; all employees working the 4 night shift would get a paid 30 minute lunch, all employees working any other shift have an unpaid lunch. HOpe this helps

marc

Maybe you should just offer a shift premium instead - it might be easier to administer and cause less questions.

Geno

I'm going to agree with marc, why don't you just get your calculator out and come with a hourly differential that amounts (financially) to the same thing as the paid lunch break --sure to result in less stress to you -- and when someone complains, you can remind them that those evening hours are/were available to all takers on a first come first serve basis.

G

bbhlaxmom

We can't offer a differential because one of our owners insists we don't need them to start before a certain time based on our productivity on the phone prior to the start time he has recently established and we close the office 10 hours after that optimal start time. He wants them to work 4 days with hours til 8 for the best phone contact time. I know... I tried to get him to back up the start 30 minutes to avoid all these issues associated with this type of situation but he is not going to budge unless it is illegal to pay some employees for their lunch break and not pay others. All he wants to know is if it is legal or not... no concerns about how fair it is to the other employees who don't get paid lunch time. HELP

marc

Absent a union contract or creating pay differentiation for illegal Title VII discriminatory reasons, it is OK to pay people differently.

pork1

Better yet, would be to offer a premium payment for all hours worked after 5:00PM until 7:00AM. It works for us and they still get their meal break without pay. We pay $1.00 in addition to their base rate of pay, for all hours worked during the night shift.

PORK