Definition: Hours worked, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, means all time an employee is suffered or permitted to work, generally including all time the employee must be on the employer’s premises, on duty, or at a prescribed workplace. It is the basis for minimum wage and overtime calculations.
Every wage and hour calculation starts with hours worked. Minimum wage is measured against them, overtime is triggered by them, and recordkeeping rules require them to be tracked daily and weekly. Many wage disputes are not about pay rates at all; they are about time the employer did not count, such as pre-shift tasks, interrupted lunches, or travel between sites.
DOL Fact Sheet #22 explains that, by statute, “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 workplace. The workday runs from when the employee starts their first principal activity to when they stop the last, so it can be longer than the scheduled shift.
The fact sheet and 29 CFR part 785 make an important point about unrequested work: if the employer knows or has reason to believe the employee is working, the time counts, whatever the reason. Staying late to finish a task or correct errors is work time. Section 785.13 states that management must make sure unwanted work is not performed and that “the mere promulgation of a rule against such work is not enough.”
| Activity | Generally hours worked? | Rule (per DOL Fact Sheet #22 and 29 CFR 785) |
|---|---|---|
| Waiting while “engaged to wait” | Yes | Waiting on duty is work time |
| “Waiting to be engaged” | No | Completely off duty until a set time |
| On-call on the employer’s premises | Yes | Employee must remain on premises |
| On-call at home | Usually no | Unless restrictions are so great the employee cannot use the time for their own purposes |
| Rest breaks (about 5–20 minutes) | Yes | Short breaks are paid and count toward hours worked |
| Bona fide meal period (ordinarily 30+ minutes) | No | Only if completely relieved from duty |
| Training, lectures, meetings | Usually yes | Not counted only if outside normal hours, voluntary, not job related, and no other work is done |
| Home-to-work commute | No | Ordinary commuting is not work time |
| Travel between job sites during the day | Yes | Part of the principal activity |
| Overnight travel during normal working hours | Yes | Including corresponding hours on nonworking days |
Sleeping time has its own rule. Fact Sheet #22 says an employee on duty for less than 24 hours is working even if permitted to sleep during slow periods. For duty of 24 hours or more, the parties may agree to exclude a bona fide, regularly scheduled sleep period of up to 8 hours if adequate facilities are provided and the employee can usually sleep uninterrupted.
Hypothetical: An HVAC technician earns $26.00 an hour. His scheduled shift is 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with a 30-minute unpaid lunch, or 8 hours a day. Each morning he picks up parts at the company shop at 7:30 a.m., then drives to his first job. On Wednesday he eats lunch in the truck while taking dispatch calls. Over five days:
| Time | Calculation | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled hours | 5 × 8 | 40.0 |
| Shop pickup before first job (principal activity begins) | 5 × 0.5 | 2.5 |
| Wednesday lunch with dispatch duties | 1 × 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Total hours worked | 43.0 |
The drive from the shop to the first job is travel during the workday, so it is already inside the 7:30 start. The technician is owed 3 overtime hours. At $26.00 × 1.5 = $39.00 per overtime hour, that is $117.00 in overtime pay, compared with a payroll that paid only the 40 scheduled hours. You can check totals with the time card calculator.
Under 29 CFR 785.48(b), employers may round clock times to the nearest 5 minutes, or to the nearest one-tenth or quarter of an hour, provided the practice does not, over time, fail to pay employees for all time actually worked. Section 785.47 allows insubstantial, hard-to-record periods to be disregarded as de minimis, but not regular working time that can practically be recorded. DOL Fact Sheet #21 requires records of hours worked each day and total hours each workweek, and says any timekeeping plan is acceptable as long as it is complete and accurate.
Some of the most frequent hours-worked questions come from routine activities. Putting on required protective gear, booting up a computer before taking calls, waiting for a manager to unlock the building after the scheduled start, counting a cash drawer after closing, and responding to work messages on a personal phone after a shift can all raise the question of whether time is compensable. The analysis depends on the facts, including whether the activity is integral to the job and whether the employer requires or knows about it. When in doubt, the safest approach is to design the process so the activity happens on the clock, for example by placing the time clock before the locker room or requiring the drawer count before clock-out.
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This is general information, not legal advice.
All time an employee is suffered or permitted to work, generally including time required on the premises, on duty, or at a prescribed workplace, plus work the employer knows about even if not requested.
Yes. DOL says short rest periods, usually 20 minutes or less, are customarily paid and must be counted as hours worked.
Ordinary home-to-work travel is not work time under the FLSA. Travel between job sites during the workday, and some travel away from home, is work time.
Usually. DOL says training need not be counted only if it is outside normal hours, voluntary, not job related, and no other work is performed at the same time.