Human Resource Blog

Shift Breaks

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Can an employer work his employees a 7p-7a shift with an 8 hour break before coming back to work and working 12 hours? If so is there a limit as to how many days in a row that individual has to work those hours in a shift?

This schedule is entirely legal under federal law, as long as the employee is over the age of 18. In fact, an employer could schedule workers for 12 hours on and 8 hours off, day after day, 365 days per year.

Federal law does not set any limits on the number of hours that an employee can work in general industry, or the minimum time between scheduled shifts.

This is because the federal government leaves this matter entirely between the employee and employer. The prevailing wisdom is that an employee who is regularly scheduled for too much overtime, or without enough time between shifts, will simply find another job.

In most cases, workers must be paid 1.5 times the usual hourly rate when they work over 40 hours per week, under federal law.

The US Department of Transportation sets limits on the number of hours that employees in certain industries can work, to protect public safety. Truck Drivers and Airline Pilots are two of the occupations that the agency regulates. OSHA has similar restrictions in a few occupations, to protect worker safety.

Both federal law and many state laws limit the number of hours that a worker under the age of 18 (or sometimes under the age of 16) can be scheduled.

The question doesn’t mention which state the employee is in. A few states have laws requiring that employees be given 8 or 10 hours between shifts. Please post a question mentioning the state, for a more specific answer.