How Many Consecutive Hours Can You Legally Work

While the FLSA generally takes precedence over state laws, small businesses are exempt from its regulations. If the employer is not engaged in interstate commerce, only the least restrictive state laws apply. In practice, this can be a somewhat tricky distinction. An office worker who ships to local customers is not covered, but an office worker who prepares promotional material to send to people in other states is likely. This factsheet provides general information on what is compensable time under the RSA. The law stipulates that workers must receive at least the minimum wage and may not be employed for more than 40 hours per week without receiving at least one and a half times their normal wage for overtime. The amount that employees should receive cannot be determined without knowing the number of hours worked. Payment for statutory holidays, sick leave or personal days is not covered. The FLSA does not cover double time. These are agreements between an employer and an employee. However, the government offers “interpretive advice” for such arrangements, which change depending on geography, type of work and other occupational factors.

The site also includes electronic tools to help employers calculate overtime pay. An employee who regularly works at a fixed location in one city receives a one-day special assignment in another city and returns home the same day. Time spent travelling to and from the other city is working time, except that the employer may deduct or not count the time the employee would normally spend commuting to the usual place of work. Emergency responders, especially those deployed for extended hours of work, should be aware of the limitations of the protective equipment they use and the length of time they are allowed or safely exposed to hazardous environments. It is not practical or safe to wear certain forms of protective equipment for long periods of time. Fatigue and heat-related illnesses are common problems. Currently, there is no OSHA standard to regulate longer and unusual shifts in the workplace. A working time of eight consecutive hours over five days with at least eight hours of rest between shifts defines a standard shift. Any postponement exceeding this standard is considered prolonged or unusual. The decision to employ workers in eight-hour, 12-hour, 16-hour shifts, etc. rests entirely with the employer. The decision to recall an employee to work on a scheduled day off rests entirely with the employer.

An employer may set work at a scheduled day off or a full shift as a condition of employment, regardless of the employee`s start or end time. An employer may make overtime a condition of employment. Since an employer can make overtime mandatory, it can terminate an employee if the employee refuses to work overtime, regardless of how many hours the employee has already worked that day or work week. The employer is not required to inform its employees in advance that they must work overtime. An employer can inform its employees at the last minute that they must work overtime. The employer does not have to consider how the work schedule affects an employee`s privacy. The payment of wages does not exempt an employee from minimum wage and/or overtime pay. If an employee receives wages and does not receive overtime pay for more than 40 hours in a work week, it must be determined whether the employee is an exempt worker or not. The main categories of exempt employees are senior managers (supervisors), administrative employees and professional employees who meet certain requirements. One of the general requirements is that the hired exempt employee must receive a guaranteed salary of at least $684 per work week (no paycheck for outside sales), which would also be the promised wage rate for the employee.

It does not matter how many hours the exempt employee works in a work week, since the guaranteed wage is paid for all hours worked in a work week, regardless of the number of hours worked. For more information about the requirements for an employee to be an exempt employee, see Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 541, which the North Carolina Department of Labor has adopted. Under federal labor law, employees under the age of 16 may not work more than eight hours per school holiday and no more than three hours per school day. Some individual industries are limited by law in terms of the number of hours an employee can work at a time. For example, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration requires commercial truck drivers to rest for at least 10 hours after driving for 11 consecutive hours. An employee who leaves home before the normal working day and returns home at the end of the working day makes ordinary journeys between home and place of work, which are not working time. The rules are the same for a large business or a small family business. Neither the NC Wage and Hour Act nor the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) limits the number of hours an employee 18 years of age and older must work per day, week, or consecutive days. There is no restriction on the number of hours an adult employee must work, whether or not the employee is exempt from an exempt employee. The employer is only required to pay its non-exempt employees remuneration for overtime and half-hours on the basis of the employee`s normal rate of pay for all of the more than 40 hours in a work week. There is no limit to the number of hours the adult employee must work.

Full-time and part-time workers who have joined unions may have a collective agreement limiting the number of hours they can work in a single workday. It can also determine how overtime is calculated and evaluate overtime. Society is guided by traditional daytime working hours and night work often increases fatigue and reduces alertness. Workers usually do not get used to night work, and sleep patterns are usually disrupted, so rest hours do not allow for complete rest, resulting in sleep deprivation. Studies suggest that it can take up to 10 days to adjust to a night work schedule. Whenever possible, strive to ensure that unavoidable extended shifts and shift changes give affected employees time to get enough rest and rest. Longer shifts should not be maintained for more than a few days, especially if they require intense physical or mental exertion. An employer is not required to pay its hourly or non-exempt employees a minimum number of hours, even if they are called up again.

An employer must pay its hourly workers and non-exempt employees only for the hours actually worked, regardless of the length or little time worked. Under federal law, the employer may offer meal or rest breaks. Rest periods are paid and last between 5 and 20 minutes.5 Meal hours are unpaid and last 30 minutes or more.6 However, federal law does not require employers to grant either type of break.