resources
mou pay explained
what it is, how the rate is built, and how to find yours from a paystub.
MOU pay is what you get for working Sunday or assisting another route. It's paid at time and a half, but not time and a half of your salary-table rate.
Official
The contract or the MOU defines this.
Unofficial
Not official, but basically correct.
Not published
No source defines this yet.
1. What MOU pay is
Official
Two kinds of work fall under the MOU:
- Sunday work you volunteer for.
- Assisting another route in the same office.
Both are paid at 1.5 times your Article 9.2.A.1.k rolling regular rate. That's a different rate from the one your relief day (K-day) is paid at, even though both land in the same "Code 053" overtime bucket on your paystub.
The MOU also says you can't be scheduled to assist another route on a day you work your own relief day, so a single day shouldn't carry both.
2. How the rate is built
Official
The rolling regular rate is an average:
Both totals run from the start of your guarantee year up to now. That's why it's called rolling: every pay period adds to both totals, so the rate shifts a little each time. A raise, a step increase or a run of light weeks all move it.
Say your non-overtime pay so far this guarantee year is $20,800 over 500 hours. That's a $41.60 regular rate, $62.40 an hour for MOU time, and 4 hours of MOU work pays $249.60.
Why you can't look it up
Your base salary comes straight out of the pay tables for your Table and Step. The MOU rate doesn't. It's built from your own pay and hours, so it's different for every carrier and it isn't printed in the pay tables or on your paystub. The guarantee-year totals aren't shown in one place either. The practical way to get your rate is to read it back off a paystub.
3. Find yours from a paystub
Unofficial
A paystub with MOU earnings on it shows what you were actually paid for that time. Divide the dollars by the hours and you have the MOU rate that week. It already includes the 1.5, so don't multiply again.
The contract defines the rate, not this way of reading it back. That part is our method.
Which week to use
Pick one week's overtime hours and dollars, in decimal hours. If that week's overtime was only MOU time (Sunday or assists), divide straight through.
If the same totals include relief-day pay, tick the box in the finder. Give it your route letter, evaluated hours, pay table and step, and it takes out one full relief day worked out from your evaluation on the current pay tables. H routes have no relief day, so leave the box unticked.
If the stub is from before September 5, 2026, or your relief day wasn't paid as a full day, enter the actual relief hours and dollars from your pay records instead. A week with MOU pay only is still the most reliable.
Worked examples
A week with only MOU assists: 6.17 hours paid at $370.20 is $60/hour.
A mixed week: a 44K route on Table Two, step 4 has a full relief day of 8.80 hours / $390.02. Take that out of 12.63 hours / $622.18 and what's left is 3.83 hours / $232.16, about $60.62/hour.
Work out yours
The Code 053 overtime hours on your stub, in decimals.
4. Using your rate
Put the rate into the paycheck verifier to check your MOU pay for a pay period.
It's an estimate, not a promise. The rolling rate keeps moving as pay and hours build up, so a rate from one week won't price a later week exactly, and a paystub rate comes from rounded figures. If your rate drifts, work it out again from a newer stub.