Twenty Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) employees boosted their salaries with more than $100,000 in overtime wages, according to The New York Post. This news comes at a time when the city's transit riders are facing fare increases and the MTA is trying to enact budget control measures.

MTA repairman Vincent Blackburn, for example, earned $135,684 last year and $202,323 the year before that, the news agency reports. Blackburn's actual salary is $66,539. Because the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) obligates employers pay non-exempt workers time-and-a-half for any hours worked beyond 40 in a pay period, they are vulnerable to employees abusing payroll policies in order to supplement their income.

"We continue to find abuse and inefficiencies and a culture that accepts them," State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli told the source. "More needs to be done to monitor overtime use to ensure it is justified and reduce it where possible."

Departments like the MTA and other businesses that need to stay within a strict budget, or take measures to reduce overtime, can install a payroll processing system that will alert management when employees are nearing or have already surpassed their allotted hours. 

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