You probably manage the planning and execution of a few events throughout the school year—open houses, fundraising events, galas, silent auctions, and more. These events are important for your recruitment and re-recruitment strategies, along with meeting your fundraising and community awareness goals.
You might lean on your staff to help run these events. Often the events are held after school or on the weekends to accommodate families’ schedules. As a result, staff members are expected to stay late or come in on their days off.
This may be OK, as long you keep specific guidelines in mind to ensure all employees are treated fairly. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) separates all positions into two categories: exempt and non-exempt.
- Non-exempt positions are eligible for overtime, and employees in these positions must be paid for all time worked.
- If non-exempt employees work extra hours during a week (such as at evening or weekend events), they must be paid for those extra hours.
- If they work more than 40 hours in a week, they must be paid at the overtime rate for all hours over 40. In some states, they must be paid overtime when they work more than eight hours in a day.
These employees can't ‘volunteer’ their time. They can’t legally opt-out of being paid for their time worked. They also cannot be given comp time as a replacement for overtime hours worked.
This gets a little cloudier if the non-exempt employees in question are also parents. You may be tempted to say that they are volunteering their time at your event as a parent—not as an employee.
However, this is risky. The Department of Labor can conclude that this volunteering claim was just to avoid paying overtime to these employees for time that they were required to work. It is therefore always safest to pay non-exempt employees for all time worked.
These issues do not hold true for exempt employees. Exempt employees aren’t paid on a time-worked basis, and therefore can work at occasional after-hours or weekend events.
It’s important to consider these details when you are staffing events. Make sure to assign roles appropriately to help keep your school protected.
Additional ISM resources:
The Source for Academic Leadership Vol. 15 No. 7 Strengthen Your School’s Volunteer Program to Benefit Your Students and Community
The Source for Private School News Vol. 17 No. 4 Why Senior Citizens Are a Vital Addition to Your Volunteer Pool
Additional ISM resources for ISM members:
I&P Vol. 35 No. 2 When Is a Volunteer Not a Volunteer
I&P Vol. 39 No. 4 Build Your Volunteer Corps: Rights vs. Responsibilities
