The subject of overtime has come up a lot the last few days, and one storyboard artist said to me: "Could you please put up a post about how overtime works? I keep forgetting". So here is your short tutorial for today.
If you're working as an hourly employee under the TAG contract, then you get:
Straight time for the first eight hours worked of the first five days of the workweek (generally Monday through Friday).
Time and a half for the ninth to fourteenth hours during those first five days (and you're supposed to take two meal breaks).
Double time for the fifteenth through twenty-fourth hours (if you or the studio are masochistic/sadistic enough to work 25 hours in a row, the twenty-fifth hour returns you to straight time ...
A couple of other small but delightful points. Under Federal labor law, there are two classifications of employees -- exempt and non-exempt.
If you work in an exempt labor category, then your employer isn't required to pay overtime. (Exempt categories include "professional", "creative" and "supervisory.")
I'm not going to get into all the permutations of "exempt" since I don't want to turn this into a Wikipedia entry. But for animation employees, the areas of exemption from o.t. include designers, layout artists, and storyboard artists, also supervisors. (This doesn't apply to animation employees working under a labor contract.)
"Non-exempt" employees would include animators, timing directors, and any artists who were revising or reworking previously-existing images. ("Animators" are specifically listed as non-exempt in the federal labor code -- they're working with those existing images.)
In the real world, there are many ways companies do overtime work-arounds. At Disney Animation Studio, to use one example, they've gone to a hard 45-hour workweek (five hours of pre-paid overtime) and cut salaries. DreamWorks has had a fifty-hour workweek (ten hours of pre-paid overtime) for years.
And many studios practice the "free overtime" business model, which goes as follows:
The production manager comes up and says:
"We need this storyboard by next Friday, and we don't have any money for overtime in the budget."
The second half of the preceding sentence technically has nothing to do with the first part, but it signals to the employee that any request for overtime authorization by said employee will be looked upon in the same way as if the employee drops trou and defecates in the main hallway.
So most employees don't ask.
But hey, there's a lot of this going around ... so here's your Captain Renault* moment:
Low-Wage Workers Are Often Cheated, Study Says
Low-wage workers are routinely denied proper overtime pay and are often paid less than the minimum wage, according to a new study based on a survey of workers in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
The study, the most comprehensive examination of wage-law violations in a decade, also found that 68 percent of the workers interviewed had experienced at least one pay-related violation in the previous work week.
“We were all surprised by the high prevalence rate,” said Ruth Milkman, one of the study’s authors and a sociology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the City University of New York. The study, to be released on Wednesday, was financed by the Ford, Joyce, Haynes and Russell Sage Foundations.
*As played by the incomparable Claude Raines in Casablanca.
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21 comments:
I love it how instead of thinking:
"Hey, we're paying too much overtime. Lets work out a realistic schedule..."
Disney thought:
"Hey, we're paying too much overtime. Lets figure out how to pay our employees less for working the same overtime hours"
Soul-less dick sucking bastards.
Hoestly, WHAT can we do about this? Ill sign anything I need to sign.
Go by the rules.
File a grievance in the rules are violated.
Sign a rep card if you're working at a non-union studio.
In my thirty years of experience, if you're willing to be abused, they will happily accommodate you.
(And yeah, there are a lot of caveats to the above. But human nature doesn't change much. And the SOTUS teaches us that companies are PEEEUPLE.)
You don't need union representation for this - it is State law. Let the Labor Board know - they're the same people who send you your unemployment checks.
-But for animation employees, the areas of exemption from o.t. include designers, layout artists, and storyboard artists, also supervisors. (This doesn't apply to animation employees working under a labor contract.)
How does this not apply to animation employees working under a labor contract? Please explain. I thought this post implied that we are all TAG. Are you just referring to supervisors? All of the above?
-confused
If you work under a union contract in animation, you can only be:
1) Hourly -- which means that you will get overtime after eight hours in a day.
2) On Call -- meaning that, if you agree with the company's request to be "on call" (and at least 10% over scale), you will receive no o.t. for the first through fifth days of the workweek, but WILL receive time and a half for "1/5 of the weekly minimum rate" for working one hour or five hours or eight hours on the sixth or seventh day worked.
You can only be "on call" if you are exempt from the overtime rules of the labor code.
Those are the two staff rates in the union contract.
(There is also a freelance rate -- "Unit Rates" -- for production boards and scripts. I happen to loathe these rates, but they were in the contract when I took the job ... and it's next to impossible to get them out.)
File a grievance in the rules are violated.
ARE they breaking the rules though? Or is this a side-step? Seems like a side-step to me...
"But for animation employees, the areas of exemption from o.t. include designers,...etc.... (This doesn't apply to animation employees working under a labor contract.)"
Again, what does this statement mean?
Steve, could you explain how freelance works under a union contract? I've never worked a freelance gig for a union studio, so I'm not entirely sure how that works.
Hey, guys, look! It's a virgin!!!!
Your Q., my A.
"But for animation employees, the areas of exemption from o.t. include designers,...etc.... (This doesn't apply to animation employees working under a labor contract.)"
Again, what does this statement mean?
In animation, the federal rules are employees who create original images are exempt. (Drawing and designing characters, backgrounds, props, etc.)
Employees who are working with existing images are non-exempt (meaning they have to be paid overtime. Animators working with existing images, artists who redraw or clean up existing designs, etc.)
Those are the federal regs.
Could you explain how freelance works under a union contract? I've never worked a freelance gig for a union studio, so I'm not entirely sure how that works.
You work away from the studio with your own supplies and equipment, you are going to be freelance employees (taxes taken out) or an independent contractor. (paid with a 1099.)
The term "freelancer" is used interchangeably when people are either of those things. Some studios use freelance employees more, others use independent contractors more.
The Feds were at one time hammering companies that used a lot of independent sub-contractors. The guvmint wanted the taxes collected.
I don't know what the federal policy is now.
Under the TAG contract, freelance employees would have to be paid as daily or weekly employees except for production board artists or writers. Those two classifications can be hired and work under "unit rates," which is a kind of piece work rate that I have hated for twenty years.
But for animation employees, the areas of exemption from o.t. include designers, layout artists, and storyboard artists, also supervisors. (This doesn't apply to animation employees working under a labor contract.)
How does this not apply to animation employees working under a labor contract? Please explain.
Okay. Here's how it works.
IF you work under a union contract or don't work under a union contract, you still are either an "exempt" employee from o.t. regulations, or NOT an "exempt" employee.
Generally, exempt employees are ones who are A) supervisory of B) the creators of "original images."
Now. If an exempt employee under federal regs works at an animation studio with NO union contract, then that studio will likely make them salaried (i.e., pay them a flat weekly rate whether they work forty hours of ninety.)
This is perfectly legal under federal labor law, because the employee is "exempt" from o.t. rules.
HOWEVER, the same exempt employee working under a TAG contract is STILL going to get paid overtime because of the requirements of the union contract ... UNLESS that employee has agreed to be "on call" and so falls under the union's "on call" rules. (No o.t. Monday-Friday, time and a half Saturday and Sunday.)
This clear things up?
Under the TAG contract, freelance employees would have to be paid as daily or weekly employees except for production board artists or writers. Those two classifications can be hired and work under "unit rates," which is a kind of piece work rate that I have hated for twenty years.
And I'm one of those two positions. I've only worked staff at union shops, so I know the weekly scale wages for a 40-hour week. It no longer surprises me as much how a couple of the other productions freelanced 90% of their storyboards. What constitutes a "unit rate?"
What constitutes a "unit rate"?
It's work for a production board, script or outline.
You can find the minimum rates for them here:
http://animationguild.org/_Contract/contract_pdf/AnimationGuildCBA.pdf
Look on page 76-77 of the document.
Steve, in July 2008 the Department of Labor changed their wording for who is exempt from overtime. Here is what it says now:
---------------------------
Creative Professional Exemption
To qualify for the creative professional employee exemption, all of the following tests must be met:
• The employee must be compensated on a salary or fee basis (as defined in the regulations) at a rate not less than $455 per week;
• The employee’s primary duty must be the performance of work requiring invention, imagination, originality or talent in a recognized field of artistic or creative endeavor.
Invention, Imagination, Originality or Talent
This requirement distinguishes the creative professions from work that primarily depends on intelligence, diligence and accuracy. Exemption as a creative professional depends on the extent of the invention, imagination, originality or talent exercised by the employee. Whether the exemption applies, therefore, must be determined on a case-by-case basis. The requirements are generally met by actors, musicians, composers, soloists, certain painters, writers, cartoonists, essayists, novelists, and others as set forth in the regulations. Journalists may satisfy the duties requirements for the creative professional exemption if their primary duty is work requiring invention, imagination, originality or talent. Journalists are not exempt creative professionals if they only collect, organize and record information that is routine or already public, or if they do not contribute a unique interpretation or analysis to a news product.
Recognized Field of Artistic or Creative Endeavor
This includes such fields as, for example, music, writing, acting and the graphic arts.
----------------------
It looks like the term "animator" has been left out these days. The 2004 version of it specifically stated "animator" as being non-exempt. Does this give us less strength for defending our exemption status? It seems like one could make a case for either side with the newer wording.
I used to work at a union shop but work at a non-cali, non-union shop now and all the animators, lighters, etc are classified as exempt. Many people here have no clue what their rights are and therefore do nothing to stand up for them.
The principle recourse you've got is to go to a state labor agency and file a complaint.
They either side with you or they don't.
Sadly, I'm pretty much completely cynical about the amount of effort local, state or federal authorities expend in defending individuals from abuse.
I never forget that we live in a corporatist state.
Podunk, thanks for the correction.
The Bush Department of Labor did indeed change the Labor Regs; I had forgotten.
One more goodie for corporations. What a surprise.
Whether or not one prefers to be labeled as 'exempt' or not I guess depends on how you prefer to calculate your weekly pay. Like taxes, it's all based on arbitrary, floating legal definitions. Play the game as it suits you.
Labor law, tax law, immigration law, it's all the same bullshit. The only thing that matters is which laws are currently in fashion to enforce. And those are wholly dependent on whose political career is currently at stake.
True enough.
"Laws that aren't enforced are like having no laws at all."
I'm aware of a large studio that consistently abuses their storyboard artists and is a union shop. They have them fill out a 40 hour week timecard regardless of the actual hours they work. These people are working well into the night and on the weekends. Of course the artists don't want to speak up for fear of not getting hired again. What do they do?
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