Do we owe overtime for more than 14 hours’ work in one day?

Q           Must a nonexempt employee who is scheduled to work 14 hours in a two-week pay period be paid overtime if they work more than the 14 hours?

This question gets at four core things to know about overtime:

First, overtime is based on hours an employee works, not hours the employee is scheduled to work. When evaluating whether overtime is owed, ignore any scheduled hours, and focus only on hours the employee actually worked.

Second, whether you must pay overtime is based only on hours worked during each regular workweek. So, if the regular workweek is Sunday at 12:00 a.m. to Saturday at 11:59 p.m., only the hours worked during that period are relevant to whether overtime is owed. The regular pay period is immaterial to whether overtime is paid, and you shouldn’t average hours worked in two or more workweeks to compute overtime.

Third, overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is due only if an employee works more than 40 hours during a regular workweek.