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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. 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 through
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 six hours on Friday and not work on
Saturday at all regardless if the schedule had called for this employee to work eight 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.
The rules are the same for a large corporation or a small mom-and-pop business. Neither the N. C.
Wage and Hour Act 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 whether 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 employees regular rate
of pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek to its non-exempt employees. There is no
limit on the number of hours the adult employee may be required to work.
The decision to work employees in eight-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 employees 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. The employer does not have give its employees any advanced notice of having to work
extra hours. An employer can inform its employees that they have to work overtime at the last
minute. The employer does not have to take into consideration how the work schedule will affect an
employees 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 the promised rate of
pay, whichever is greater, and pay time and one-half overtime pay based on the employees 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 by the number of days worked regardless of the
length of the pay period. Each workweek stands on its own.
Being paid a salary 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 salariedexempt employee must be paid a guaranteed salary of at least $455 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

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details on the requirements for an employee to be a salaried-exempt employee, please review the
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 541, which the N.C. Department of Labor (NCDOL) has adopted,
online at: http://www.ecfr.gov
Also, the Wage and Hour Act 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 five 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. An employer is not required
to give its employees a smoke-break or to provide a breakroom. Please review on-line our
BreaksWhat 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, heres
what you need to do:
1) You need to contact the U.S. Department of Labors Wage and Hour Division office in either
Charlotte (704-749-3360) or Raleigh (919-790-2741) if any of the following is true: the private
employers gross sales or receipts for a year are $500,000 or more; it is a part of a chain operation
with three or more units or there are 30 or more employees; 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. The website is http://www.dol.gov/.
2) You need to call the NCDOL Wage and Hour Bureau at 919-807-2796 (Raleigh) or toll-free (NC
only) 1-800-NC-LABOR (1-800-625-2267) if the private employers gross sales or receipts for a year
are less than $500,000 or you do not know, or if the employer is a private non-profit organization. Our
call center is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through 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.

N.C. 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 (1-800-625-2267)
Website: http://www.nclabor.com

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1101 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27699-1101 919-807-2796 or 800-NCLABOR

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