weekend differential pay

[CurlyDoodle]

Hi Everyone!

I am a dog groomer in NorCal. I have been using Square since I opened and I love it. 

The business is growing and I recently added the modules for team and payroll. I am currently open Saturdays and plan to be open 7 days a week when fully staffed. I would like to offer a pay differential for weekends, since naturally that's when everyone wants to be free. 

Do any of you have a shift differential? If so, how much extra do you pay?

Thanks 🐾

[CurlyDoodle]

It's not easy to find and keep good people. In my last hiring adventure, I got 50 applications, did phone interview for 12, in-person interview for 4, and hired one! This process took about two months. 

[CareyJo]

Ya, I've heard it can be maddening.  I'm not looking forward to hiring people in the near future but I don't think I will be opening it to the public for a while.  We're going to bring one of our daughters and sons into the team first.

[TheRealChipA]

Interesting topic.  I own an ice cream shop, so some weekend and holiday work are pretty much mandatory.  That's just the way it is in hospitality.  We compound that by the fact that during the summer, we DO NOT close for holidays.  I mean, it's ice cream.  People want ice cream on summer holidays.  In all honesty, people was to go to restaurants and bars on holidays, too. Of course, when I hire I make it perfectly clear that weekend and holiday hours are just part of the job and, if they take the offer, they do so with that knowledge.  I do allow them to tell me one weekend day that they can't work and make that part of their unavailability, but that's the limit of what I do.

That being said, when I'm asking something out of the ordinary in a given week from an employee, they get rewarded somehow.  It might be PTO hours to use freely in the future.  It might be extra pay or some sort of bonus.  It helps that I rarely deny time off requests.  I learned a long time ago (with high school and college folks) to overhire and keep all positions part-time.  That way I can let them have time off for family vacations, concerts, etc, and still have plenty of people to pick up the slack.  My employees find that to be one of the real perks of working for me -- flexibility within reason but still having a solid predictable job.

So, for me, it's not about differentials as much as it is about flexibility and respect for the fact they have lives.  I make it clear that if they meet me halfway on this, they won't be disappointed.

Not really on topic, of course, @CurlyDoodle.. But maybe it has some bearing on what you are asking.

[CareyJo]

I think this is so fantastic!  That is an awesome way to acknowledge that your people need to have a life and yet still work, while meeting your needs and showing them you care.  I don't think that employers realize often enough how important it is to keep their people happy and retain them.  I've seen this failure far too often... both as an outsider and employee.

[ChickenRacer]

Australia is very different, we don't have tipping (or at least it's only minor). In hospitality, staff get a rate for Mon-Friday (around $34), a rate for Sat(around $40), a rate for Sun(around $48). Plus they get more again public holidays, and after 7pm, and after midnight.

It's a nightmare for small businesses to try and work all this out from a payroll point of view.

Also makes it hard for small businesses, as people want you to be open on holidays/Sundays etc, but don't want to wear staff surcgarges!

[CareyJo]

That's insane!  I can't imagine how hard that would be to manage!  Why in the world would they do that to you guys!?!  That doesn't sound like good economical planning.

[ChickenRacer]

The irony is, it's much more complicated then that haha, I was giving the cliff notes. Friends of friends are about to be fined big money, as they were "underpaying staff". They actually technically paid them more then they were entitled to, but wasn't categorised properley. Because of all the drama, they have lost staff

[CareyJo]

That is so incredibly sad and unfair 😔

[ChickenRacer]

Yes, governements can be fun

[CareyJo]

IKR!?!  We, as a humanity, often think the grass is greener on the other side, but it's really just our vantage point.

[CurlyDoodle]

I spoke at a conference in Australia in 2017 and remember the no tipping! My friend who accompanied me thought they were being polite and kept trying to tip! 

I imagine Square had tools to sort out all the different pay rates. 

[Lovewell]

Hi! 
not an expert but we are in California 🙂 

In California you cannot do differential pay (as in more for weekends) because once you bump someone up you can’t take them back down.

But- I believe you can do holiday pay (we are closed most holidays so we don’t do this) but I know when I’ve had other jobs we had holiday pay. Basically adding on an extra “average day”

to their pay! So if they typically work 5 hours then had an extra 5 hours onto their pay. 

[doc_choc]

Employment law is such a mine field these days. It maybe worth finding an HR freelance/consultant for advice. Its a cost but you don't want it coming back to bite you.

[CareyJo]

And every state (or country) is different.  In the US we have individual labor laws and only a federally mandated minimum wage... it can be tricky.

[CurlyDoodle]

Thanks for the feedback! I did some research and found this not to be true ; in fact, differential pay is not uncommon. There are union contracts specifying what extra amount is paid for weekends, late hours, etc. 

I was surprised to find out you don't have to provide holiday pay. It's an incentive rather than a law.

[ChickenRacer]

In Australia, it depends whether they are Full Time, or Casual. Although casuals get paid more hourly, so it is supposed to work out close to the same. 

I just pay staff what the 250 page document says I should pay mine.