Now that it is open after lockdown we are spending quite some time in The Jolly Quizmaster, which is very busy and the staff have to work very hard to keep up with hungry, and of course thirsty, customers. During brief lulls in activity we have chatted to the landlord and our favourite member of staff about how busy they both are.
It seems that the staff are all on contracts to work 40 hours every week; however, with the current demand the landlord needs everyone to work 44 hours per week. This extra workload has been causing some friction, and it appears that the landlord has offered the staff two ways out of this situation.
The first is that they work the contracted 40 hours as normal and then get paid overtime at time and a half for the other four hours.
The second is that they agree to work 44 hours a week and he will increase their hourly pay by five percent.
So which offer should the staff accept?
For simplicity assume that a member of staff is paid £10 per hour.
With the first offer they would receive 40 x £10 (£400) and then overtime of 4 x £15 (£60), making a total of £460.
Under the second offer they would receive 44 x £10.50 which is £462.
The offer of increased basic pay is better than the overtime.