Introduction to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

T HE W ORK P ERIOD

S ECTION 4

A. B ASIC W ORKWEEK P RINCIPLES

1. D EFINITION OF A W ORKWEEK

DOL regulations define a workweek as follows:

An employee’s workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours -- seven consecutive 24-hour periods. It need not coincide with the calendar week but may begin on any day and at any hour of the day. 97

Under this definition, an employee’s workweek need not begin at 8 a.m., or on Sunday or Monday. It can begin at any hour on any day. This principle is important because it allows employers to implement certain alternative and flex time schedules without incurring extra overtime (e.g., a 9/80 work schedule). Once the start time of an employee’s workweek is established, it becomes fixed regardless of the schedule of hours worked. 98 An employer can have different workweeks for different employees or groups of employees. 99 2. R EQUIREMENT TO D ESIGNATE Employers are required to designate a workweek for every employee. The designation must include the time of day and day of the week on which the employee’s workweek begins. 100 3. R EQUIREMENTS R EGARDING C HANGE OF W ORKWEEKS The Act requires that any changes to an employee’s workweek must be permanent and not designed to evade paying overtime. 101 For example, an employer cannot temporarily change the start time of an employee’s FLSA workweek to avoid having to pay the employee overtime for work performed in the workweek. a. Working 10 Days in a Row The importance of ascertaining a workweek may be illustrated by the following example in which an employee works ten days in a row, eight hours a day, without triggering overtime obligations. Assume that an employee is assigned a workweek that begins on 12:01 a.m. Sunday and ends at midnight Saturday. If the employee works eight hours a day beginning Tuesday, the employee can work ten days in a row without incurring overtime. 4. I LLUSTRATIONS OF W ORKWEEK P RINCIPLES

Introduction to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ©2020 (s) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 22