Under federal law, you do not get overtime after 8 hours in a single day. The Fair Labor Standards Act triggers overtime only after you work more than 40 hours in a workweek, so a 10-hour Monday earns overtime only if it pushes your weekly total past 40. A handful of states go further and require daily overtime once you cross a set number of hours in one day, with thresholds ranging from 8 to 12 hours depending on the jurisdiction. One federal carve-out for hospital workers also creates a daily trigger. Where you work, and what kind of work you do, decides whether the extra hours on a long shift show up as premium pay.
The Federal Rule Is Weekly, Not Daily
The FLSA sets one threshold: 40 hours in a workweek. If you’re non-exempt, your employer owes you at least one and a half times your regular rate for every hour beyond 40 in that week. The law does not require overtime for hours beyond 8 in a day, for Saturday or Sunday shifts, or for holiday work.1eCFR. 29 CFR Part 778 – Overtime Compensation A 12-hour day earns overtime only if the rest of your week pushes you over 40.
Your employer picks the workweek, which is any fixed, recurring 168-hour period. It doesn’t have to match the calendar week, but once it’s set, it can’t be shifted week to week to dodge overtime. Everything you work beyond 40 hours inside that fixed window earns the overtime rate.
The practical effect: a four-day, 10-hour-per-day schedule produces zero federal overtime, even though every shift runs past 8 hours. The same schedule in a daily-overtime state generates 8 overtime hours a week.
States That Require Daily Overtime
Some states and territories require overtime on a daily basis, and their thresholds fall into a few tiers:
- Time-and-a-half after 8 hours in a day, with double-time in some places after 12 hours.
- Time-and-a-half after 10 hours in a day, in at least one state, limited to manufacturing and factory settings.
- Time-and-a-half after 12 consecutive hours in a day, in one state, for most workers.
Some daily rules apply only to certain industries or wage levels. Where a state rule and the federal rule overlap, the one that pays the worker more controls. If your state triggers overtime after 8 hours in a day and you work 10 hours, you’re owed 2 overtime hours for that day even if your week ends under 40 total.
The Healthcare Exception: The 8/80 Rule
Federal law does contain one daily overtime trigger, and it applies only to hospitals and residential care facilities. Under the “8/80 rule,” a covered employer can use a 14-day work period instead of the standard 7-day workweek. In exchange, it must pay overtime for any hours beyond 8 in a single workday and for any hours beyond 80 across the 14-day period.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 207 – Maximum Hours
The arrangement requires an agreement between employer and employee before the work is performed. A hospital can’t apply it retroactively to avoid weekly overtime. When it is in place, healthcare workers effectively receive daily overtime after 8 hours under federal law. If your facility hasn’t adopted the 8/80 system, the ordinary 40-hour weekly threshold applies.
Are You Even Eligible for Overtime?
Before any threshold matters, you need to be a non-exempt employee. The FLSA splits workers into exempt (no overtime required) and non-exempt (overtime required) categories. Most hourly workers are non-exempt. Being paid a salary does not automatically make you exempt, which is the single most common misunderstanding about overtime.3Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17a – Overtime Pay Requirements
To be exempt, you must clear both of these:
- A salary threshold of at least $684 per week ($35,568 annually), paid on a salary or fee basis.4U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption
- A duties test, meaning your primary work fits an executive, administrative, or professional category defined in federal regulations.3Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17a – Overtime Pay Requirements
Both have to be met. A salaried worker earning $80,000 who mainly does data entry isn’t exempt. A “manager” earning $30,000 isn’t exempt either, because the pay falls short of the threshold.
The Department of Labor tried to raise that threshold in 2024, with an increase set to bring the minimum to $1,128 per week ($58,656 annually) by January 2025. A federal court vacated the rule on November 15, 2024, leaving the $684 weekly figure from the 2019 rule in effect.4U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption
What Counts Toward the Threshold
Whether you cross a weekly or daily overtime line depends on which time counts as “hours worked.” A lot of overtime goes unpaid because workers don’t realize the following time qualifies.
On-Call and Waiting Time
If you have to stay on your employer’s premises, or close enough that you can’t use the time for your own purposes, on-call time counts. If you just need to leave a phone number and are otherwise free, it doesn’t. Who controls the time is the test. A factory worker waiting for a machine to be repaired is working. A delivery driver released for a four-hour city break with no duties is not.5eCFR. 29 CFR Part 785 – Hours Worked
Travel Time
Your regular commute doesn’t count. Travel between job sites during the workday always does, as does a special one-day assignment to another city (minus your normal commute). Overnight travel counts as hours worked whenever it falls during your normal working hours, including on days you don’t normally work. Passenger travel outside normal working hours generally doesn’t count.6U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 22 – Hours Worked Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
Training and Meetings
Employer-required training is generally compensable. Training escapes hours-worked status only if all four of these are true: attendance is outside regular hours, attendance is genuinely voluntary, the content isn’t directly related to your current job, and you do no productive work during the session.7eCFR. 29 CFR 785.27 – General If any condition fails, the time counts. Mandatory safety training during your shift is hours worked. A weekend seminar your boss strongly “encourages” you to attend is probably hours worked too, since voluntariness is judged by the reality of the situation, not the phrasing on the invitation.
If You Worked the Hours and Weren’t Paid
Unpaid overtime creates real legal exposure for employers, and the FLSA gives workers tools to recover what they’re owed.
A successful overtime claim recovers the full amount of unpaid overtime wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, effectively doubling the recovery. Courts must also award reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. Willful or repeat violators face additional civil penalties.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216 – Penalties
You have two years from each violation to file. If the violation was willful, meaning your employer knew or recklessly disregarded the law, the deadline extends to three years.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 255 – Statute of Limitations Each underpaid paycheck is a separate violation with its own clock, so waiting permanently eliminates older pay periods from your recovery.
Federal law also requires your employer to record daily hours, weekly totals, and all wages paid, and to keep those records for at least three years.10eCFR. 29 CFR Part 516 – Records to Be Kept by Employers Missing records help your case. Courts generally shift the burden to the employer, and your reasonable estimates of hours worked can carry the day if the employer can’t produce records to contradict them.
To file a complaint, call the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division at 1-866-487-9243; the call routes to your nearest local office.11U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint You can also file a private lawsuit in federal or state court, with or without an attorney.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216 – Penalties Whichever route you take, start documenting now. Keep your own log of when you clocked in, when you left, and any off-the-clock work. That record becomes the core of your case if your employer’s numbers are incomplete or missing.