A number of New York City agencies exceeded their overtime employee attendance budgets because of Hurricane Sandy, according to figures that were recently released by the Independent  Budget Office (IBO). Between October 29 and December 24, the organization estimated city departments spent approximately $154.1 million on overtime pay.

Police departments racked up the highest time and attendance costs, with a $70.9 million bill to compensate officers for working more than 40 hours in a single week.

Sanitation department employees earned the second highest payouts in the aftermath of the hurricane, which left many neighborhoods in Manhattan and Long Island flooded, while power outages stranded millions without electricity. They brought in a total of $53.6 million. Along with the fire departments, which tallied $8.6 million in overtime wages and the parks department, which owed workers $4.7 million for extra time on the clock, these five organizations represented 90 percent of the total overtime expenditures for the city, the IBO reports.

Emergency situations often require companies to go outside of their normal payroll practices, disregarding overtime caps and normal scheduling limitations. However, this doesn't mean employers can violate the Fair Labor Standards Act. First responders are normally owed additional wages if they work more than the total number of hours allotted in a single workweek, according to the DOL. 

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