Drivers must take a 30-minute break when they have driven for a period of 8 cumulative hours without at least a 30-minute interruption. The break may be satisfied by any non-driving period of 30 consecutive minutes (i.e., on-duty not driving, off-duty, sleeper berth, or any combination of these taken consecutively).
Drivers may split their required 10-hour off-duty period, as long as one off-duty period (whether in or out of the sleeper berth) is at least 2 hours long and the other involves at least 7 consecutive hours spent in the sleeper berth. All sleeper berth pairings MUST add up to at least 10 hours. When used together, neither time period counts against the maximum 14- hour driving window.
Drivers using a sleeper berth must take at least 8 hours in the sleeper berth, and may split the sleeper berth time into two periods provided neither is less than 2 hours. All sleeper berth pairings MUST add up to at least 8 hours.
A driver is exempt from the requirements of 395.8 and 395.11 if: the driver operates within a 150 air-mile radius of the normal work reporting location, and the driver does not exceed a maximum duty period of 14 hours. Drivers using the short-haul exception in 395.1(e)(1) must report and return to the normal work reporting location within 14 consecutive hours, and stay within a 150 air-mile radius of the work reporting location.
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.
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 salaried-exempt employee must be paid a guaranteed salary of at least $684 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 N.C. Department of Labor has adopted.
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 our What to Know About Breaks fact sheet for more details.
An employer is not required to pay a minimum number of hours to its hourly paid employees or to its non-exempt salary employees including if they are called back in. An employer only has to pay its hourly employees and non-exempt salary employees for the actual hours worked regardless of how long or how few the time is.
For example: If an employer called an employee in to work but sent the employee home after waiting 15 minutes to see if the employee would be needed, then the employer only has to pay the employee for the 15 minutes as the time waiting is work time. If an employer called an employee in to work but met the employee at the door and sent the employee home before the employee had to wait or perform any work, then the employer would not have to pay this employee anything at all. If an employer called an employee in for a conference or meeting that lasted only 30 minutes and this is all of the time that the employee worked that day, then the employer only has to pay the employee for the 30 minutes. But an employer does have to pay its employees for the time they have to wait in the establishment to see if they are needed.
The only variation to this is if an employer has made a promise to pay its employees a certain minimum amount of time if an hourly employee or non-exempt salary employee is called in as a wage payment agreement. The giving or not giving of promised wages, including wage benefits, is entirely up to each employer. "Promised wages" can be an hourly rate that is more than the minimum wage, overtime pay for certain days worked rather than the statutory requirement of paying overtime pay for the hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek, shift differential pay, commissions, bonuses, piece-rate, production pay, a weekly salary, a monthly salary, subsistence, or mileage expenses. "Wage benefits" are benefits such as vacation pay, sick leave, jury duty pay, and holiday pay. If an employer does promise to pay such wages, then the employer must pay all promised wages, including wage benefits, accruing to its employees based on any policy, agreement or practice that the employer has established. And pursuant to N.C.G.S. 95-25.13(2), the employer must: "Make available to its employees, in writing or through a posted notice maintained in a place accessible to its employees, employment practices and policies with regard to promised wages."
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This fact sheet provides general information concerning what constitutes compensable time under the FLSA. The Act requires that employees must receive at least the minimum wage and may not be employed for more than 40 hours in a week without receiving at least one and one-half times their regular rates of pay for the overtime hours. The amount employees should receive cannot be determined without knowing the number of hours worked.
By statutory definition the term "employ" includes "to suffer or permit to work." The workweek ordinarily includes all time during which an employee is necessarily required to be on the employer's premises, on duty or at a prescribed work place. "Workday", in general, means the period between the time on any particular day when such employee commences his/her "principal activity" and the time on that day at which he/she ceases such principal activity or activities. The workday may therefore be longer than the employee's scheduled shift, hours, tour of duty, or production line time.
Employees "Suffered or Permitted" to work: Work not requested but suffered or permitted to be performed is work time that must be paid for by the employer. For example, an employee may voluntarily continue to work at the end of the shift to finish an assigned task or to correct errors. The reason is immaterial. The hours are work time and are compensable.
Whether waiting time is hours worked under the Act depends upon the particular circumstances. Generally, the facts may show that the employee was engaged to wait (which is work time) or the facts may show that the employee was waiting to be engaged (which is not work time). For example, a secretary who reads a book while waiting for dictation or a fireman who plays checkers while waiting for an alarm is working during such periods of inactivity. These employees have been "engaged to wait."
An employee who is required to remain on call on the employer's premises is working while "on call." An employee who is required to remain on call at home, or who is allowed to leave a message where he/she can be reached, is not working (in most cases) while on call. Additional constraints on the employee's freedom could require this time to be compensated.
Rest periods of short duration, usually 20 minutes or less, are common in industry (and promote the efficiency of the employee) and are customarily paid for as working time. These short periods must be counted as hours worked. Unauthorized extensions of authorized work breaks need not be counted as hours worked when the employer has expressly and unambiguously communicated to the employee that the authorized break may only last for a specific length of time, that any extension of the break is contrary to the employer's rules, and any extension of the break will be punished. Bona fide meal periods (typically 30 minutes or more) generally need not be compensated as work time. The employee must be completely relieved from duty for the purpose of eating regular meals. The employee is not relieved if he/she is required to perform any duties, whether active or inactive, while eating.
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