BREAK TIME
- Rest periods of short duration (normally 5 to 20 minutes) are counted as hours worked and must be paid – to be non-compensable, break time must be at least 20 minutes or longer.
- Meal period under Department of Labor regulations is 30 minutes or more – meal periods are not hours worked when the employee is relieved of duties for the purpose of eating a meal.
COMPENSATORY TIME
- Private employers are not allowed to utilize comp time. One of the most misunderstood and misapplied rules of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) deals with overtime and comp time. Often employees would rather receive comp time than overtime pay. In fact, they specifically ask for it.
WORKWEEK
- Overtime compliance is determined by workweek, and each workweek stands by itself – workweek is 7 consecutive 24 hour periods (168 hours).
