Overtime is the hours that non-exempt employees work over 40 hours during a work week. Overtime is counted across an entire work week, not on a day-to-day basis. So, an employee who works 10 hours on Monday and seven hours a day for the next four days is not considered to have worked overtime for purposes of pay.
Additionally, what is considered a work week may be defined by the employer as any consecutive seven days, with each day consisting of a 24 hour time period. This may also mean 168 consecutive hours.
According to the Department of Labor (DOL), some exceptions to these overtime rules apply, under special circumstances, to police and firefighters and to employees of hospitals and nursing homes. If these jobs exist in your workplace, you will want to check further about overtime with the DOL.
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