Piece-rate wages are calculated and paid based on the number of work performed by the worker and at a pre-determined unit price per piece. Many people think that the piece-rate wage system is based on the implementation of more work and more rewards according to their workload, and there is no overtime pay. So is it legal to implement piecework wages without overtime pay?
According to the second paragraph of Article 13 of the Interim Provisions on Payment of Wages issued by the former Ministry of Labor, for employees who are subject to piece-rate wages, after completing the piece-rate quota task, the employer shall arrange for extended working hours and pay their wages at a rate not less than % of the unit price of the piece-rate working hours of the former Ministry of Labor. It can be seen that if an employee continues to work outside the statutory working hours after completing the piecework quota, it can be regarded as having overtime work. In the case of the piece-rate wage system, the employee shall meet two conditions when claiming overtime wages from the employer. The first is that the worker has completed the piecework quota task, and the second is that the employer arranges for the worker to work outside the statutory working hours. The calculation of overtime pay needs to take into account that the employee's workload exceeds the piecework quota, rather than calculating the remuneration according to the working hours.
It should be noted that the piece-rate wage system is a system for calculating labor remuneration based on the results of labor completed within a certain period of time, and it only regulates the calculation method of wages and remuneration, and the employer should still reasonably determine the labor quota and calculation standard of the employee according to the statutory working hour system. In judicial practice, if there is an agreement on the piece-rate wage labor quota in the labor contract, it shall be reviewed in accordance with the agreed quota, and if there is no agreement, it shall be reviewed in accordance with the industry regulations. If the labor quota is obviously unreasonable or there is no industry regulation, the overtime shall be calculated after the quota is converted according to the standard working hours, and if the hourly wage calculated is lower than the minimum wage standard, the overtime wage shall be made up according to the minimum wage standard.
To sum up, it is illegal to implement piece-rate overtime without overtime pay. Since the piece-rate wage system is a system in which wages are calculated according to the quantity of products and predetermined units of valuation, labor remuneration is not calculated based on working hours. Therefore, the following factors need to be considered in the calculation of overtime pay under piece-rate wages: 1. The worker has completed the piece-rate quota task;2. The employer has arranged extended working hours3. According to the piecework price, it shall not be lower than the piecework unit price of the statutory working hours.