Standard working hours - Topics

Clients and suppliers still call between nine and five and expect an answer Travel between client sites counts as hours worked while the commute does not Exempt status turns on duties and salary level rather than the job title A standard employment contract that says hours as required by the company defines nothing The last hour of a nine-to-five job is the least productive hour of the day Whether lunch counts toward full-time hours moves your weekly total by five Nondiscretionary bonuses must be folded into the overtime rate Rest breaks under twenty minutes are paid and count toward standard working hours Waiting time when you cannot leave the premises is hours worked Unpaid breaks longer than twenty minutes come off the full-time hours count Fluctuating schedules still owe overtime past forty even for salaried staff The five-day standard workweek is a convention rather than a federal rule Hour records must be kept even for staff treated as exempt Meal breaks shorter than twenty minutes must be paid to non-exempt staff A six-day standard workweek is lawful where the weekly hour cap is the only limit Some states require one day of rest in seven regardless of the standard workweek Mandatory overtime is defensible in an emergency and questionable as a standing rule An overtime policy that lives only in the handbook fails the first time a manager asks a favor State standard working hours override the federal forty hour week when stricter California counts hours over eight in a day separately from the weekly forty Seventh-consecutive-day rules trigger premium pay regardless of the weekly total A pre-approval requirement does not erase the duty to pay for hours actually worked Capping overtime at ten hours a week is a policy choice and not a liability shield Overtime starts after forty hours in a workweek and the workweek has a fixed definition A short turnaround between a closing and an opening shift is restricted in some states Whether a public holiday shift is overtime depends on state law rather than policy A workweek can start on any day but moving it to dodge overtime is unlawful Standard working hours do not make nights or weekends premium time