State of Pennsylvania (PA) Overtime Labor Law Regulations

The Pennsylvania law for overtime is an interesting mix of regulations that we’ve seen in many other states, as well as regulations that are more based in just the Keystone State. That makes the state a worthy look for this blog here.

The main part of the Pennsylvania law that is similar to many other overtime labor laws throughout the United States is the length of the work week that Pennsylvania considers to be the standard week. And that length is 40 hours. In other words, if I were an employee and worked 45 hours one week, that would be over the standard work week and would trigger the overtime regulations.

Then, according to Pennsylvania law, my employer would be required to pay me a premium overtime pay rate for those five extra hours over the baseline 40. The premium pay rate for overtime in Pennsylvania is, again, similar to most other states: time and a half of my normal pay rate.

This is actually also the standard work week length and premium overtime pay rate prescribed by the federal statutes on overtime labor, the so-called Fair Labor Standards Act. This law, though, is only in effect for certain businesses in Pennsylvania, namely those that practice interstate commerce, have offices in states outside of Pennsylvania, and/or bring in more than $500,000 in revenue a year.

The Pennsylvania overtime labor laws, however, covers every business in the state, or almost. This is where the unique character of Pennsylvania’s overtime labor laws can be seen. Pennsylvania excludes some very specific businesses from having to pay certain workers for overtime.

Some of these exclusions include seamen, taxi drivers, maple sugar processors, and even news editors, chief engineers, and announcers for radio and television stations. Other employees excluded from earning overtime include movie theater employees and people who work at auto dealerships.