Workweek

What Is A Workweek?

A workweek consists of seven consecutive 24-hour periods determined by an employer, for a total of 168 hours.

Any day of the week may serve as the beginning of the workweek. Some employers may opt to begin the workweek on Monday and end it on Sunday, while others may choose to begin it on Thursday and end it on Wednesday.

Individually, a workweek may refer to the number of hours an employee works throughout the course of seven 24-hour periods. For instance, the majority of full-time wage earners work 40 out of 168 hours.

For hourly employees, any time performed in excess of 40 hours in a workweek is classified as overtime and compensated at a premium rate.

In contrast, salaried employees, sometimes known as "exempt" employees, have no weekly limit on the number of hours they can work and receive a fixed income regardless of the number of hours worked.

How Many Days Does A Workweek Consist Of?

The maximum length of a workweek is 168 hours, which must not be exceeded.

A workweek is as long as an individual employee is scheduled to work during that week. The number of hours worked by part-time employees might vary widely, but it must be below 40 hours per week to be termed part-time. The usual workweek for full-time employees in the United States is 40 hours.

Why Is A Workweek So Crucial?

The workweek is an essential distinction that compels employers to specify overtime pay and maintain FLSA compliance.

Extra Time Pay

The workweek is used to calculate the total amount of overtime pay payable to employees under the FLSA. Employers are prohibited from basing overtime pay on the number of hours worked within the pay period (which often covers two weeks). If this were the case, businesses would only pay for hours worked in excess of 80 per two-week pay period.

Measuring working time by the workweek compels companies to pay non-exempt employees overtime for any hours worked in excess of 40 each week.

FLSA Conformity

Employers must adhere to this definition of the workweek in order to comply with the FLSA. A conviction for noncompliance may result in fines of up to $10,000, and a second conviction may result in jail for the employer.

Can An Organization's Workweek Be Altered?

You may alter your company's workweek, but you must have a valid cause to do so. Suppose, for instance, that your business was previously closed on Monday, and you used that day as the beginning of the workweek. Then, you decide to keep your business open on Mondays but close on Saturdays. In this situation, you should alter the start of your workweek to Saturday.

A word of caution: altering the workweek too frequently may give the impression that you are attempting to avoid paying overtime earnings to your employees.

How Do I Determine The Beginning Of My Workweek?

Employers should begin the formal workweek on a day when employees are not scheduled to work. When your employees are not actively earning hours, calculating payroll is significantly simpler.

For instance, if your firm is open from Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Although your employees' workweek legally begins on Tuesday, having an official start on Monday will make it easier to distinguish overtime hours from regular hours.

Using Multiple Workweeks

However, what if your firm is open seven days each week? Creating various workweeks that apply to different groups of employees is the optimal method.

Say, for instance, your company has three distinct workweeks: Monday through Friday, Tuesday through Saturday, and Wednesday through Sunday. Each of these work schedule groupings may begin their workweeks on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday, respectively. This would allow you to calculate overtime and regular compensation for non-working days for this personnel.

Conclusion

Prior to the enactment of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the elements of the modern workweek (40 hours spread out over five days) existed. While requests for an eight-hour weekday date back to the mid-1800s, Ford Motors was the first big firm to implement a conventional 40-hour workweek in 1926.

After the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was enacted in 1938, the United States began observing a standard workweek. The FLSA was designed to protect the health and safety of factory workers. In the act, a 44-hour workweek was made mandatory, but in 1940, it was reduced to 40 hours.