Request By:
Frankie Scott Hager
City of Owensboro
City Attorney
Owensboro, Kentucky 42301
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Martin Glazer, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your letter of June 29, 1981, in which you state that the fire chief of your city contends that the Professional Fire Fighters Foundation Program Fund monies are not includable in determining a fireman's base hourly rate for overtime computation. Apparently, you disagree with him, citing as examples the concurrent fund for policemen.
We enclose a copy of OAG 80-437 and 77-89 which advised that the overtime hours, that is call back overtime and scheduled overtime, are included in determining the 15% payment to firemen under the PFFFPF and to policemen under the KLEFPF program.
Inasmuch as these monies are paid on a regular basis to the firemen, they are includable in determining the rate of pay for purposes of overtime, pursuant to Department of Labor Regulation 803 KAR 1:060. As you point out, under Section 8 only those sums which are paid as unusual one-time gifts or bonuses would not be includable in determining the hase rate for purposes of overtime, but the incentive pay is a regular rate of pay, once determined. It is but part of the wages or salaries of the individual fireman. Under KRS 337.010(1)(c), the term, "wages," includes any compensation due to an employee by reason of his employment, such compensation to include salaries, commissions, vested vacation pay, overtime pay, severance or dismissal pay, earned bonuses, or any other similar advantages agreed upon by the employee or employer as an established policy. Therefore, it would appear that the regular incentive pay paid to a fireman would be part of his regular base pay and utilized in determining the amount of his overtime pay when he works over 40 hours per week.