Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, a workweek is a fixed, recurring 168-hour period chosen by your employer, and the pay rules that attach to it are narrower than most people think: federal law requires time-and-a-half for hours worked beyond 40 in that single week, sets a $7.25 minimum wage that deductions cannot push you below, and demands prompt payment — but it leaves how often you get paid almost entirely to state law.
What Counts as a Workweek
A workweek is seven consecutive 24-hour days, totaling 168 hours.1eCFR. 29 CFR 778.105 – Determining the Workweek It does not have to run Sunday to Saturday. Your employer picks the day and time it starts, and once set, that choice sticks. A workweek that begins Wednesday at noon ends the following Wednesday at noon, every week.
Each workweek stands on its own. Your employer cannot average hours across two weeks to avoid overtime. Work 50 hours one week and 30 the next, and you are owed overtime for the first week regardless of the two-week total.2U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 23 – Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA This is the rule employers break most often, sometimes because payroll systems are built around biweekly pay periods rather than individual workweeks.
Employers can move the workweek’s start time, but only if the change is permanent and not designed to sidestep overtime. Shifting the start right before a heavy stretch and shifting it back afterward invites scrutiny from the Department of Labor.3eCFR. 29 CFR 778.301 – Overlapping Workweeks
The 40-Hour Overtime Rule
Any hour worked beyond 40 in a single workweek must be paid at no less than one and one-half times your regular rate.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 207 – Maximum Hours You cannot waive this right, and no agreement to accept straight time for overtime hours is enforceable.2U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 23 – Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA
Your regular rate is not always your hourly wage. It generally includes shift differentials, non-discretionary bonuses, and commissions, which is one reason employers who are trying to comply still get the math wrong.
Overtime does not have to arrive in the paycheck for the week it was earned, but it cannot drift. The premium must be paid on the regular payday for the pay period in which the workweek ends. If the exact figure depends on commissions or bonuses that haven’t landed yet, the overtime must be paid as soon as the calculation is practical, and no later than the following payday.5eCFR. 29 CFR 778.106 – Time of Payment
What Hours Get Counted
Time on the clock isn’t the only time that counts toward your 40. Short breaks of roughly 5 to 20 minutes are generally paid time. So is time spent on tasks your employer requires before or after a shift, such as booting up a computer, putting on required safety gear, or clearing a security screening. Bona fide meal periods of 30 minutes or more where you are fully relieved of duties are not counted. On-call time may count if the restrictions on your movement are severe enough that you cannot effectively use the time for yourself.
Employers are allowed to round clock-in and clock-out times to the nearest 5, 6, or 15 minutes.6eCFR. 29 CFR 785.48 – Use of Time Clocks The rounding has to cut both ways over time. A system that always rounds down at the start of a shift and up at the end quietly shaves minutes off your paycheck and violates the rule.
When You Have to Be Paid
The FLSA does not set a pay frequency. It does not require weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, or monthly pay. What it requires is that wages be paid promptly after the work is done, a principle the Supreme Court has treated as central to the statute.7Legal Information Institute. Brooklyn Savings Bank v. O’Neil An employer cannot hold onto your wages for weeks after the pay period closes.
Beyond that, pay frequency is state territory. Most states require at least semimonthly or biweekly pay, some require weekly pay for certain workers, and a few set no schedule at all. There is no single national number to cite. To find the minimum where you work, check with your state labor department.
Federal law also does not require an immediate final paycheck when someone quits or is fired. Some states demand same-day payment on involuntary termination; others let the employer wait until the next scheduled payday.8U.S. Department of Labor. Last Paycheck Penalties for missing a state final-paycheck deadline can accrue daily, so state law matters far more than federal on this one.
Deductions and the Minimum Wage Floor
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 206 – Minimum Wage Employers can make deductions, but no deduction for items that primarily benefit the employer can drop your effective pay below that floor in any workweek. The test runs week by week, not averaged across a pay period. The same protection covers overtime: deductions cannot reduce your overtime pay below the required rate either.
The Department of Labor treats several categories as employer-benefit deductions that cannot eat into the minimum wage: required uniforms and their laundering, tools of the trade, employer-required medical exams, cash register shortages, damage to company property even when you caused it, and unpaid customer debts.10U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 16 – Deductions From Wages for Uniforms and Other Facilities Under the FLSA If you earn above minimum wage, there is room to deduct — but only down to the floor.
Tipped Employees
The math shifts for workers who regularly earn more than $30 a month in tips.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 203 – Definitions Employers can take a tip credit and pay a cash wage as low as $2.13 per hour, provided tips bring total hourly compensation to at least $7.25.12U.S. Department of Labor. Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees If tips fall short in any workweek, the employer has to make up the difference. Employees keep their tips; managers and supervisors cannot take a share, whether or not the employer uses the tip credit.
If Your Employer Isn’t Following the Rules
You can file a confidential complaint with the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division at 1-866-487-9243. The WHD will not disclose your name, the nature of your complaint, or even whether one exists. Retaliation against a worker who files a complaint or cooperates with an investigation is prohibited.13U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint
An employer who fails to pay proper minimum wages or overtime owes the unpaid wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, effectively doubling the bill.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216 – Penalties A court can reduce the liquidated portion if the employer proves the violation was in good faith, but that’s a high bar.
Deadlines are firm. A wage claim must be filed within two years of the violation, or three years if the violation was willful — meaning the employer knew what it was doing or showed reckless disregard for the law.15Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 255 – Statute of Limitations Once the window closes, the claim is gone.
Who These Rules Actually Cover
Not every worker is protected. The FLSA reaches employees of businesses with at least two employees and annual sales or revenue of $500,000 or more, along with hospitals, schools, and government agencies.16U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 14 – Coverage Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Even at smaller businesses, you are individually covered if your work regularly involves interstate commerce, which courts read broadly enough to include email, out-of-state phone calls, or handling goods that have crossed state lines.
Within covered businesses, the workweek and overtime rules above apply to non-exempt employees. The common executive, administrative, and professional exemptions require a salary of at least $684 per week, or $35,568 annually, following a federal court’s decision to vacate the Department of Labor’s 2024 attempt to raise that threshold.17U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemptions If you earn less than that on salary, or you are paid hourly, the rules in this article almost certainly apply to you.