Hours
Worked and Mandatory Overtime There
are no wage and hour laws that limit the
amount of hours that a person 18 years
of age or older can work either by the
day, week, or number of days in a row,
or that require breaks for employees 16
years of age or older. And an employer
is free to adjust the hours of its employees
regardless of what the employees are scheduled
to work. For example: To avoid having
to pay time and one-half overtime pay
for hours worked in excess of 40 in a
workweek that is Sunday thru Saturday,
an employer could adjust the hours of
an employee who has already worked 34
hours by the end of a Thursday by requiring
that the employee work only 6 hours on
Friday and not work on Saturday at all
regardless if the schedule had called
for this employee to work 8 hours on Friday
and Saturday. Also, this may be done regardless
if the employee agreed to this or not.
An employer can make the scheduling or
rescheduling of its employees hours worked
as a condition of employment.
And
the rules are the same regardless if the
employer is a large corporation or a small
mom-and-pop outfit. Neither the North
Carolina Wage and Hour Act (WHA) nor the
federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
limit the amount of hours that an employee
18 years of age or older can be required
to work either by the day, week, or number
of days in a row. There are no limitations
on how many hours an adult employee can
be required to work regardless if they
are a salaried-exempt employee or a non-exempt
employee. The employer is only required
to pay time and one-half overtime pay
based on an employee's regular rate of
pay for all hours worked in excess of
40 in a workweek to its non-exempt employees,
but there is no limit to how many hours
the adult employee may be required to
work. The decision to work employees in
8-hour shifts, 12-hour shifts, 16-hour
shifts, etc. is entirely up to the employer.
The decision to call an employee back
in to work on a scheduled day off is entirely
up to the employer. An employer can make
the working on a scheduled day off or
working a full shift as a condition of
employment regardless of an employee's
start-time or end-time. An employer can
make the working of overtime hours as
a condition of employment. Since an employer
can make the working of overtime mandatory,
the employer can terminate an employee
if the employee refuses to work overtime
regardless of how many hours the employee
has already worked that day or workweek.
And the employer does not have give its
employees any advanced notice of having
to work extra hours. An employer can come
up at the last minute to inform its employees
that they have to work overtime. And the
employer does not have to consider how
the working of the extra time will affect
an employee's personal life.
How
an employee is paid depends on if the
employee is non-exempt or exempt from
minimum wage and/or overtime pay. An employer
must pay an employee at least the minimum
wage (currently $7.25 an hour under both
North Carolina and federal labor laws)
or pay the employee their promised rate
of pay, whichever is greater, and pay
time and one-half overtime pay based on
the employee's regular rate of pay for
all hours worked in excess of 40 in a
workweek unless the employee is exempt
for some reason. The minimum wage and
overtime pay are based on the hours worked
each workweek and not by the number of
hours worked each day or the number of
days worked regardless of the length of
the pay period. And each workweek stands
on its own.
And
merely being paid a salary in itself does
not exempt an employee from the minimum
wage and/or overtime pay requirements.
If an employee is paid a salary and is
not paid time and one-half overtime pay
for hours worked in excess of 40 in a
workweek, then a determination must be
made as to if the employee is a salaried-exempt
employee or not. The main categories to
be a salaried-exempt employee are for
executive (supervisory) employees, administrative
employees, and professional employees
who meet certain requirements. One of
the general requirements is that the salaried-exempt
employee must be paid a guaranteed salary
of at least $455.00 a workweek (no salary
test for Outside Sales), which would also
be the promised rate of pay for the employee.
It then does not matter how many hours
the salaried-exempt employee works in
a workweek as the guaranteed salary is
pay for all hours worked in a workweek
regardless of the number of hours worked.
For more details on the requirements for
an employee to be a salaried-exempt employee,
please review the Code of Federal Regulations
(CFR) 541, which the North Carolina Department
of Labor (NCDOL) has adopted, on-line
at: http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_541/toc.htm
Also,
the WHA does not require mandatory rest
breaks or meal breaks for employees 16
years of age or older. The only required
rest breaks or meal breaks are for youths
under 16 years of age. Youths under 16
years of age have to be given at least
a 30-minute break after 5 hours of consecutive
hours and no break of less than 30 minutes
shall be deemed to interrupt a continuous
period of work. Generally, it is entirely
up to an employer to give or not give
rest breaks and/or meal breaks to some
or all of its employees who are 16 years
of age or older. And an employer is not
required to give its employees a smoke-break
or to provide a breakroom. Please review
on-line our Breaks
- What to Know fact sheet for more
details.
If
you still have questions, you cannot determine
the answer to your minimum wage and/or
overtime pay issue, or if you need further
clarification as to an employee being
salaried-exempt or not, here's what you
need to do:
1)
If the private employer's gross sales
or receipts for a year are equal to or
more than $500,000.00, if it is a part
of a chain operation with 3 or more units
or there are 30 or more employees, if
the employer is a hospital, school, nursing
home, group home for the mentally or physically
disabled, or day care center, or the employer
is a domestic, agricultural or governmental
employer; then you need to contact the
United States Department of Labor's Wage
and Hour Division office in either Charlotte
(704) 749-3360 or Raleigh (919) 790-2741.
Web site: http://www.dol.gov/
2)
If the private employer's gross sales
or receipts for a year are less than $500,000.00
or you do not know, or the employer is
a private non-profit organization; then
you need to call us at (919) 807-2796 (Raleigh)
or toll-free (NC only) 1-800-NC-LABOR
(1-800-625-2267). Our Call-Center is open
from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday thru Friday.
The
NCDOL can assist if the issue concerns
wage payment, which has to do with promised
wages such as hourly pay at more than
the minimum wage, a promised salary, or
shift differential pay; or promised wage
benefits such as vacation pay, sick leave,
severance pay, jury duty pay, and holiday
pay. Only governmental employers are exempt
from the wage payment provisions.
North Carolina Department
of Labor
Wage and Hour Bureau
1101 Mail
Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1101
(919) 807-2796 or (toll-free NC only) 1-800-NC-LABOR
Web site: http://www.nclabor.com
