The same bonus that drives performance can become a DOL wage claim if it's not structured right. Protiv builds the overtime recalculation into every bonus — automatically, every pay period.
Three layers of protection
Performance bonuses change what you owe in overtime. Most operators either miss that or dread it. Protiv does the math the same way every period, shows the worker, and keeps the record.
A performance bonus raises the regular rate for the week it was earned. Protiv spreads it across the hours worked and pays the half-time premium on overtime hours — automatically, every period.
Every worker gets a statement each period showing base wage, bonus rate, effective wage and the overtime adjustment — not just a number at the bottom.
Every change is logged at field level, per user, per organization. If anyone asks how a number was reached — a worker, your accountant, the DOL — you can reconstruct it.
What compliance actually covers
Labor law compliance isn’t one feature. It’s a layer built into ProPay’s architecture — from how bonuses are structured to what workers see to what finance can export during an audit.
A bonus tied to production or quality is nondiscretionary, so the FLSA requires it in the regular rate for the workweek it was earned in. That raises the overtime rate for that week.
In a spreadsheet this is the step people skip, because it means recomputing overtime after the bonus is known. Protiv spreads the bonus across the hours it was earned over, applies the half-time premium to the overtime hours, and adds it to the statement — every period, without anyone remembering to.
A bonus that a worker cannot check is a bonus they do not trust. Most payroll software shows a line item and a total. Protiv shows the working.
Every worker receives a statement at the end of each period showing their regular wages, their performance bonus, the overtime adjustment, and how each number was reached. Delivered through the app, in English, Spanish or Portuguese.
When bonuses are held pending a callback period, safety review, or quality inspection, the legal structure matters. In most states, a bonus that’s been “earned” can’t be clawed back without triggering wage claim exposure.
Protiv’s Held Bonus Ledger structures bonuses as conditional — unearned until the release conditions clear. Every hold, condition, and resolution is documented. If a worker disputes a held bonus, you have the record.
FLSA has a 2–3 year back-pay lookback period. A wage claim filed today can reach back to payments you made in 2023. Most operators can’t produce that history. Protiv keeps it for you.
Every ProPay calculation is stored with the job, the worker, the regular rate basis, the bonus amount, the overtime adjustment and the final payout. One export. Clean. Complete.
Common questions
They do. That is the part most operators get wrong. Here are the questions people actually ask — answered honestly.
What this means for your business
“We’d been running bonuses for four years without knowing our OT was miscalculated on every single check. Protiv’s structure would have caught that on day one.”
— Owner · Multi-location landscaping operation · Southeast US
30 minutes with our team. We’ll walk through your current bonus setup, show you how the overtime recalculation lands, and run the numbers on your last 12 months — before a DOL auditor does it first.