Kentucky Overtime Pay Law

Employers in Kentucky must conform with these state rules regarding overtime pay for employees.

In Kentucky, employees must be paid no less than one and one-half times their hourly rate for any hours worked in excess of 40 per week. Employees who work seven days in a workweek must be paid one and one-half times their hourly rate for work on the seventh day, with some exceptions.

Exemptions From the General Overtime Provision

The general provision does not apply to employees exempt from state minimum wage requirements or to:

• bona fide administrative, executive or professional employees
• parents, children, spouses or other members of the employer's immediate family
• outside commission paid salespersons
• outside collectors
• domestic service in or about a private home
• persons delivering newspapers to the consumer
• certified learners, apprentices, workers with a disability and students
• purchasing and distribution work
• employees of certain retail stores, restaurants, hotels or motels
• people exempt from the federal overtime pay standards as seamen, taxi drivers or agricultural workers
• employees of interstate motor carriers or vehicle salespersons, partspersons or mechanics
• employees of a nonprofit camp, religious, or nonprofit educational conference center that does not operate for more than seven months per calendar year
• providers of 24-hour parental care on the premises of nonprofit child care facilities.

Special rules for companionship services. Individuals providing companionship services who are employed by a third-party employer or agency are exempt from the overtime pay rules.

Companionship services are services which provide in-home fellowship, care, and protection for a person who, because of advanced age or mental or physical infirmity, cannot care for his or her own needs. These services may include household work related to the care of the aged or infirm person such as meal preparation, bed making, clothes washing, and other similar services. These services may also include the performance of general household work, provided that the household work is incidental, meaning that it does not exceed 20 percent of the total weekly hours worked.

Companionship services do not include services relating to the care and protection of the aged and infirm which require and are performed by trained personnel, such as a registered or practical nurse.