Hours Worked Under the Fair Labor Standards Act for calculating Overtime

posted by Neil Klingshirn  |  Jul 14, 2009 5:12 PM [EST]  |  applies to Ohio

The amount of overtime owed to an employee is the Regular Rate multiplied by the number of Hours Worked during a Workweek. This Article covers Hours Worked.

Hours worked includes all time during which an employee is necessarily required to be on the employer's premises, on duty or at a prescribed work place. Hours worked may therefore be longer than the employee's scheduled shift, hours, tour of duty, or production line time.

Examples of Hours Worked

Work not requested but permitted to be performed is work time that must be paid for by the employer. For example, an employee may voluntarily continue to work at the end of the shift to finish an assigned task or to correct errors. Whether required by the employer or not, this time is included in work time.

Waiting Time: Generally, if the employee was engaged to wait (required to be present and waiting to be assigned work), the time is work time.  If the employee is waiting to be engaged (is voluntarily present but waiting for work). For example, the time during which a secretary reads a book while waiting for dictation or the time a fireman plays checkers while waiting for an alarm are hours worked.  The secretary and fireman are entitled to the minimum wage and credit towards overtime hours for such periods of inactivity. These employees have been "engaged to wait."

On-Call Time: An employee who is required to remain on call on the employer's premises is working while "on call." An employee who is required to remain on call at home, or who is allowed to leave a message where he/she can be reached, is not working (in most cases) while on call. If the employer puts additional constraints on the employee's freedom during on-call time, however, this time could be hours worked.

Rest and Meal Periods: Rest periods of short duration, usually 20 minutes or less, are common in industry and are customarily paid for as working time. These short periods must be counted as hours worked.

Bona fide meal periods (typically 30 minutes or more) generally need not be compensated as work time. The key, however, is that the employee must be completely relieved from duty for the purpose of eating regular meals. The employee is not relieved if he/she is required to perform any duties, whether active or inactive, while eating.

Sleeping Time and Certain Other Activities: An employee who is required to be on duty for less than 24 hours is working even though he/she is permitted to sleep or engage in other personal activities when not busy. An employee required to be on duty for 24 hours or more may agree with the employer to exclude regularly scheduled sleeping periods of not more than 8 hours, provided adequate sleeping facilities are furnished by the employer and the employee can usually enjoy an uninterrupted night's sleep. No reduction is permitted unless at least 5 hours of sleep is taken.

Lectures, Meetings and Training Programs: Attendance at lectures, meetings, training programs and similar activities need not be counted as working time only if the following four criteria are met:

• it is outside normal hours,
  
• it is voluntary,
  
• not job related, and
  
• no other work is concurrently performed.
  

Travel Time: Whether travel time is work time depends upon the kind of travel involved.

External Links

Links to external sites with additional information about this topic.

• 29 CFR Part 785, Hours Worked
• Is extra pay required for weekend or night work?
• How are vacation pay, sick pay, holiday pay computed and when are they due?
• When must breaks and meal periods be given?

posted by Neil Klingshirn  |  Jul 14, 2009 5:12 PM [EST]  |  applies to Ohio