Here in Charlotte, we have been seeing a lot of Help Wanted/We Are Hiring signs posted in local restaurants and stores. The national labor shortage is making its impact and causing some questions to come up for hourly wage earners. With fewer folks at work, employers are relying more heavily on their current employees. This has led to some recent calls asking, “Can my boss make me work overtime?” or “Can my employer make me come in on the weekend? It’s my day off!”

To answer these, we need to look at the Fair Labor Standards Act or FLSA (29 U.S.C. § 201). This labor law originally passed in 1938 still governs much of employment standards today. According to the FLSA, an Employer can require you to work overtime. In fact, there are no federal or NC state laws that limit the number of hours or days that an employee (18 years old and older) can work. Because of this, not only can your Employer schedule you to work overtime but they can also fire you for refusing to do so.

Just as the FLSA doesn’t limit how many hours an employee can work; it also does not limit when the workdays need to be scheduled. The decision for how long or even when a shift may be, is completely up to the Employer. What that means is that your Employer can ask you to come in on a Saturday and can even do so on the Friday evening before.

The law does require that most employees be paid overtime for each hour in a week worked over forty. Please contact us with any questions regarding overtime pay.