There are a lot of sleepy Connecticut basketball fans this morning, with the game against Syracuse last night (and this morning) going into SIX overtimes.  Those of us staying up until nearly 1:30 a.m. to watch the second-longest game in NCAA basketball history will remember that game for a long time. 

With overtime on my mind, it’s a good time to address two simple issues that sometimes arise in Connecticut:

• What’s the difference between daily overtime and weekly overtime?
• And does Connecticut have a "daily" overtime rule?

"Daily" overtime is a concept that a non-exempt employee who works more than 8 hours in a day (or perhaps on a weekend day or holiday) is due an overtime rate of time-and-a-half of regular hour rate.  Some states have imposed this rule."Weekly" overtime is the more commonly understood concept that an non-exempt employee is only due an overtime rate of pay after working more than 40 hours during a week.

Connecticut’s Department of Labor quite succinctly states that Connecticut does not have an "daily" overtime rule, absent some contractual arrangement.  Instead, Connecticut follows a weekly overtime rule, that can be found at Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 31-76b. 

Thus, if there were non-exempt employees in Connecticut who had to work late last night because of the basketball game, they are only going to be eligible for overtime if they work more than 40 hours during this week (or there was some other type of contract, like a collective bargaining agreement, that mandated it).

And if you see some people napping around the office today, have some sympathy for them too. Staying up late didn’t help UConn’s cause; they lost 127-117.