hello all. im new here. and tomorrow is my last day of my emt-b class. i have heard a few different things about 24 hour shifts regarding pay. where some say you get paid by the hour/OT and others say you get a certain lump sum for working a 24 hour shift. does it depend on the company or location? maybe some one can help out. thanks!
24 hour shifts
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both of the companies I work for I do 24 hr shifts with. we get paid by the hour. I have heard of some companies that dont pay you the whole 24 hr shift bc you get time to *sleep* which is not right in my opinion. so I would have to say it all depends on the company
It depends on company, location, state laws, etc...
adamjh3
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Pretty much sums it up.
At my company we get get paid 14 out of 24 hours. You have two seperate half hour C7's, a dinner hour, and 8 hours of "sleep" time (they give you a ten hour chunk of time once you get back to station). If your sleep time is interrupted you will be paid hourly after the first 2 hours that you work, if you work more than 5 hours during your sleep time the entire 24 gets paid out.
Seems like a decent system...I didn't think it was legal for them to NOT pay you, but it sounds like you get compensated fairly. What do you and your co-workers think?
adamjh3
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I don't mind it, a lot of the people who have been here longer dislike it.
On one hand, if I'm on the clock, I think I should be getting paid, however, on the other hand, if I'm sleeping, why should I get paid? I have mixed feelings.
adamjh3
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Ah, with that I should mention, the first 8 hours of our 24 is at straight time, after that is time and a half up to 14 hours, everything past 14 is doubletime.
However, if you have seperate shifts (example: work 0700-0700 mon-tues then work 0700-1900 tues) you go back to straight time at the start of your second shift.
crossatwood
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Our company works on an hourly rate for 24 hr shifts plus shift differential. the only time we don't do that is for call pay. So we actually get paid more during night time hours that seems to be the standard up here i haven't heard of any companies in my area that pay reduced wage because you get to sleep (in theory) on a 24.
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adamjh3
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I do. The guy who was my FTO does as well. I think a couple other people might. I've not seen any mistakes yet, though, our times are recorded 2 different ways, we write them down on a time sheet and they're recorded at dispatch. I'm sure they could screw a lot of people if they wanted to, but I haven't seen it yet.
jjesusfreak01
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They moved a few of the busiest stations here to 12 hour shifts running 24 hours a day because you don't get any time to sleep overnight, and you don't get any significant breaks during the day. They didn't want sleepy providers running calls. Of course those same medics that just ran the 12 are probably signed up for a 24 immediately after at another station, but I digress.
fma08
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As I understand it, we get paid a base rate, pretty much for being on call for the 24 hours. Then, we get paid a different rate for "productive time" like going on a call, helping in the hospital, etc. That's where the OT distinction comes it. We start getting into OT if we have more than 40 hours of "productive time" in a week. I think that's how it works anyway at our service. It's confusing haha
BLSBoy
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I work 24/48 with a Kelly day every 3 weeks.
Base rate for 40hrs/wk, OT for anything over 40hrs.
Base rate for 40hrs/wk, OT for anything over 40hrs.
There are a couple of reasons that you should be paid your regular rate for sleeping. First, you're not at home, in your own bed. You must maintain a constant state of readiness, be ready to respond within one-two minutes. Even if you're on call from home when off duty, there should be compensation in the form of a stipend. In either case, you're not free to go about your life, you're being compensated to be available for calls.
Second, the company saves money by having you work 24 hour shifts. This allows them to cover more shifts/hours with less employees. Think about it. For every five employees on a variation of a 24/48 no kellys (56 hour workweek, on average), you save 80 hours of labor a week, the same as two FT employees. That's a savings of 2 retirement plans, 2 medical plans, sick days x 2, paid time off x 2, equipment, uniforms, increased support/admin staff, insurance, a savings in hiring and training costs, so on and so forth.
If you're working, you need to be compensated at your full rate for the entire time, not just if you get a call. That reduced "sleep rate" is a load of bull. If you get no calls at night, the company makes out since they're not paying you to be there, even though you're still covering their rig, making it available. If you get a call, you get your full rate only for the time worked. Sounds a little one sided, no?
Why stop at non payment for sleep hours? What about all downtime? I was watching a news artcle from Canada that brought to light this very practice in some rural areas. You had these medics working a massive amount of hours as paid on call from the station, in hopes of going FT.
If you don't think employers are doing whatever they can to shortchange their employees, google "chinese overtime" and "system status management".
Edit: Bottom line, if you're not at home, in your own bed, you're working. If you're expected to staff a rig for a call, you're working. If you're working, then your full hourly rate applies.
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There are a couple of reasons that you should be paid your regular rate for sleeping. First, you're not at home, in your own bed. You must maintain a constant state of readiness, be ready to respond within one-two minutes. Even if you're on call from home when off duty, there should be compensation in the form of a stipend. In either case, you're not free to go about your life, you're being compensated to be available for calls.
Second, the company saves money by having you work 24 hour shifts. This allows them to cover more shifts/hours with less employees. Think about it. For every five employees on a variation of a 24/48 no kellys (56 hour workweek, on average), you save 80 hours of labor a week, the same as two FT employees. That's a savings of 2 retirement plans, 2 medical plans, sick days x 2, paid time off x 2, equipment, uniforms, increased support/admin staff, insurance, a savings in hiring and training costs, so on and so forth.
If you're working, you need to be compensated at your full rate for the entire time, not just if you get a call. That reduced "sleep rate" is a load of bull. If you get no calls at night, the company makes out since they're not paying you to be there, even though you're still covering their rig, making it available. If you get a call, you get your full rate only for the time worked. Sounds a little one sided, no?
Why stop at non payment for sleep hours? What about all downtime? I was watching a news artcle from Canada that brought to light this very practice in some rural areas. You had these medics working a massive amount of hours as paid on call from the station, in hopes of going FT.
If you don't think employers are doing whatever they can to shortchange their employees, google "chinese overtime" and "system status management".
Outbac1
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I agree. If you are working you should be paid your full rate.
Archymomma
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We work 24s. The first 8 is straight pay, the second 8 is pay plus 10%, the third 8 is plus 25%. When I started, if you got a consecutive 4 hrs of sleep in the middle of the night you were paid for only 20 hours. Our Director went to the board (we are attached to the County Hospital) for a full 24 hrs of pay. They agreed so begining back in January we started getting paid for a full 24 hrs.
As someone else said - can't go home so we should be paid for it.
As someone else said - can't go home so we should be paid for it.