BOP Program Statement 8570.02 § 13

Inmates are to be paid overtime pay at a rate of twice the hourly rate for hourly, individual, and

group piece workers when the total hours worked, including administrative pay, exceed the

operation’s regularly scheduled workday.

Example: An operation has a scheduled workday of seven and one-half hours. The inmate’s

regularly scheduled workday consists of five hours. If the inmate works 10 hours, the inmate has

earned two and one-half hours of overtime pay (i.e., hours worked by the inmate minus the

industrial operation’s regularly scheduled workday). The 10 hours do not need to be continuous.

The inmate, within the same workday, could have worked two shifts of five hours each.

8570.02 9/3/2026 PROPERTY OF US GOVERNMENT 9

Hours worked on days outside of the scheduled workweek (e.g., Saturday) must be compensated

at the overtime rate.

For individual piece rate workers, overtime earnings are determined by the amount of total piece

work earnings for the day divided by the total number of hours worked that day. This rate

is then multiplied by the number of hours worked during the overtime period to get the total

overtime premium wages. The premium portion of overtime is then added to the total units

produced during the overtime multiplied by the rate.

Example: Assume a scheduled workday of 7 hours in this example. The inmate works 10 hours

(3 hours overtime) completing 70 units at .10 per unit; 20 of the units were completed during

overtime. Overtime wages would be determined as follows:

Step 1:

Total Units (70) x Rate Per

Unit (.10) = Average Hourly Rate (.70)

Number of Hours Worked (10)

Step 2:

Average Hourly Wage (.70)

x Overtime Hours (3) = Overtime Premium ($2.10)

Step 3:

Units during Overtime (20)

x rate (.10) = $2.00 Total Overtime Pay = $2.10 + 2.00 = $4.10

An inmate worker on a standard pay plan during the regular workday who works overtime under

an individual incentive pay plan must receive piece work earnings plus the inmate standard

hourly wage for the overtime period.

Overtime for workers in a group piece plan is added to the wage fund after computing the base

rate for each grade. This is to ensure the amount of overtime paid to one individual will not in

any way affect the basic hourly rate of the other workers.