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Last updated on: May 20th, 2022
Hours & Pay Regulations
Normal Working Hours
There are no wage and hour laws that limit the number of hours that a person 18 years of age or older can work either by the day, week, or the number of days in a row, or that require breaks for employees 16 years of age or older. An employer is free to adjust the hours of its employees regardless of what the employees are scheduled to work. The rules are the same for a large corporation or a small mom-and-pop business. Neither the N. C. Wage and Hour Act nor the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) limit the number of hours that an employee 18 years of age or older can be required to work either by the day, week, or a number of days in a row.
There are no limitations on how many hours an adult employee can be required to work regardless of whether they are a salaried-exempt employee or a non-exempt employee. The employer is only required to pay time and one-half overtime pay based on an employee’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek to its non-exempt employees. There is no limit on the number of hours the adult employee may be required to work.
The decision to work employees in eight-hour shifts, 12-hour shifts, 16-hour shifts, etc., is entirely up to the employer. The decision to call an employee back in to work on a scheduled day off is entirely up to the employer. An employer can make the working on a scheduled day off or working a full shift as a condition of employment regardless of an employee’s start-time or end-time. An employer can make the working of overtime hours a condition of employment. Since an employer can make the working of overtime mandatory, the employer can terminate an employee if the employee refuses to work overtime regardless of how many hours the employee has already worked that day or workweek.
The employer does not have to give its employees any advanced notice of having to work extra hours. An employer can inform its employees that they have to work overtime at the last minute. The employer does not have to take into consideration how the work schedule will affect an employee’s personal life.
Overtime
Fluctuating workweek overtime pay is a way to comply with the overtime pay requirements of time and half pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek when an employee’s time fluctuates from week to week. Employers whose employees work a lot of hours part of the year and very little hours a week another part of the year usually use it.
The employee must be on a guaranteed weekly salary which is paid to the employee as long as the employee performs any work in the workweek. No pay is required for a workweek in which the employee is out for the entire workweek and performs no work in that workweek. Pay periods can still be bi-weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly; but the work hours have to be computed weekly to determine the hours worked each workweek.
Breaks
The North Carolina Wage and Hour Act does not require mandatory rest breaks or meal breaks for employees 16 years of age or older. The WHA requires breaks only for youths under 16 years of age. Youths under 16 years of age have to be given at least a 30-minute break after 5 hours, and no break of fewer than 30 minutes shall be deemed to interrupt a continuous period of work. Again, there are no required rest breaks or meal breaks at all for employees 16 years of age or older. The North Carolina law on breaks for youths under 16 years of age generally applies only to enterprises that have gross sales or receipts of less than $500,000 a year and to private non-profit organizations. It is our understanding that the federal Fair Labor Standards Act does not require that an employer give its employees mandatory rest breaks or meal breaks regardless of an employee’s age.
Generally, if an employer does give breaks, then the break must be at least 30 minutes for the employer to be able to deduct the time from an employee’s pay. An employer does not have to let its employees leave the employer’s premises as long as the employee is completely relieved of duty during the 30-minute break, and the employer does not have to provide a break room. An example of an employee “completely relieved of duty” is one who is completely relieved from having to wait for customers to come in or to call. Waiting for customers to come in or to call is clearly work time even if the employee is free to eat or read a magazine while they are waiting for customers or calls. Generally, breaks of less than 30 minutes, such as a 15-minute rest break, have to be paid by the employer.
Annual Leave
No employer is required to provide annual leave pay plans for employees. However, if an employer provides these promised benefits for employees, the employer shall give all annual time off or payment in lieu of time off in accordance with the company policy or practice. Employees shall be notified in accordance with any policy or practice which requires or results in loss or forfeiture of vacation time or pay. Employees not so notified are not subject to such loss or forfeiture.
Minimum Wage
Employees must be paid at least $7.25 an hour or the federal minimum wage, whichever is higher.
The above information on minimum wages might not be up to date & subject to change. Kindly access the DOL website for the current rates.
Special Leave
Employers shall grant 4 hours per year leave to any employee who is a parent, guardian, or person standing in loco parentis of a school-aged child so that the employee may attend or otherwise be involved at that child’s school. However, any leave under this section is subject to the following conditions:
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- The leave shall be at a mutually agreed upon time between the employer and the employee.
- The employer may require an employee to provide the employer with a written request for the leave at least 48 hours before the time desired for the leave.
- The employer may require that the employee furnish written verification from the child’s school that the employee attended was otherwise involved at that school during the time of the leave.
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Employers shall not discharge, demote, or otherwise take an adverse employment action against an employee who requests or takes leave under this section. Nothing in this section shall require an employer to pay an employee for leave taken.
No employer may discharge or demote any employee because the employee has been called for jury duty, or is serving as a grand juror or petit juror There is no requirement that the employer pays the employee for jury duty unless the employer has promised to do so. Jury duty is just like any other wage benefit the employer has to give it only if the employer has made a promise to do so. “Wage benefits” are benefits such as, but not limited to, vacation pay (including PTO and PDO leave), sick leave, jury duty pay, and holiday pay. If the employer has made such a promise, then the employer must have written policies on all of its promised wage benefits which have to be made available to its employees.
State law does not require private employers to pay employees for absences caused by jury service. Although not required to do so, many private employers pay all employees called to jury service regardless of exempt or nonexempt status. The court pays jurors a small fee, and the private employer may offset any amounts received by an employee for a particular week against the salary due for that particular week. However, special rules apply to exempt employees. Under federal law, employers typically cannot deduct an exempt, salaried employee’s pay for time spent serving on a jury, unless the employee did no work for the entire week.
Leave with pay, up to a maximum of 120 hours each Federal fiscal year shall be granted to members of the uniformed services for:
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- active duty for training (annual training or special schools, including an authorized training program for the National Disaster Medical System); or
- inactive duty training (drills – usually on weekends) If the drill is not scheduled on the employee’s off-day, the employee has the option of requesting that the work schedule be rearranged, or the employee may use any unused portion of the 120 hours leave with pay, vacation/bonus leave or leave without pay.
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Additional military leave needed for training shall be charged to vacation/ bonus leave or leave without pay at the discretion of the employee. When a military obligation is less than 31 days an employee is authorized eight (8) hours recoup time before and after the performance of military duties or military training. This time may also be charged to the 120 hours leave with pay, leave without pay or vacation/bonus leave. Leave with pay shall be granted for a required physical examination relating to membership in the uniformed services.
No employer shall discharge, demote, deny a promotion, or discipline an employee because the employee took reasonable time off from work to obtain or attempt to obtain relief. An employee who is absent from the workplace shall follow the employer’s usual time-off policy or procedure, including advance notice to the employer, when required by the employer’s usual procedures unless an emergency prevents the employee from doing so. An employer may require documentation of any emergency that prevented the employee from complying in advance with the employer’s usual time-off policy or procedure, or any other information available to the employee which supports the employee’s reason for being absent from the workplace.
Employers shall grant four hours per year leave to any employee who is a parent, guardian, or person standing in loco parentis of a school-aged child so that the employee may attend or otherwise be involved at that child’s school. However, any leave under this section is subject to the following conditions:
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- The leave shall be at a mutually agreed upon time between the employer and the employee.
- The employer may require an employee to provide the employer with a written request for the leave at least 48 hours before the time desired for the leave.
- The employer may require that the employee furnish written verification from the child’s school that the employee attended or was otherwise involved at that school during the time of the leave.
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