North Carolina Employment Law

An employee’s regular working hours may not exceed the legal maximum regular hours of 40 hours per workweek (exclusive overtime).

“Workweek” and “week” mean any 7 consecutive days, starting with the same calendar day each week. “Workweek” is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours, seven consecutive 24-hour periods.

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 working 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.

Rounding off Rules:  The employer can round off the time worked as long as the rounding is consistent “up and down” and it is agreed by the employee. One method of rounding is the 7/8 minute rounding rule: 7 minutes round down and 8 minutes round up.

For example: An employee’s day starts at 8:00 am. The employee clocks in one day at 8:05 am. Under the 7/8-minute rules, the employer must round the start time down to 8:00 am for this employee. But if the same employee clocks in another day at 8:09 am, then the employer can round the start time up to 8:15 am.

Meeting, lecture, and training time – The time an employee spends in meetings, training, attending a class or course, or attending a workshop may or may not be hours worked based on the circumstances and under certain conditions. Attendance at lectures, meetings, training programs, and similar activities must be counted as work time unless all four of the following criteria are met:

• • • it occurs outside normal scheduled hours of work;
    • it is completely voluntary;
    • it is not job-related (unless the employee attends an independent school or college on their initiative outside work hours); and,
    • no other work is performed during the period.

The time spent attending training required by law for employees of a business is work time for which employees must be compensated. The time spent attending training that is required by law for employees of a business is work time for which employees must be compensated.

The time spent attending training that is required by law for an individual employee to retain their certification is not work time as long as all four of the above criteria are met. Furthermore, even if the time spent in the above activities is work time, the employer may elect to pay an employee a lower hourly rate for this work time, which may be set as low as the minimum wage.

Recording Requirement – Every employer shall maintain complete and accurate records that contain the following information for each employee in each workweek unless the employee is specifically exempted:

• • • Name in full;
    • Home address, including zip code and phone number;
    • Date of birth if under 20;
    • Occupation in which employed or job title;
    • Time of day and day of the week the employee’s workweek begins (a group of employees working the same workweek may have one record-keeping for the entire group);
    • The regular rate of pay;
    • Hours worked each workday;
    • Total hours worked each workweek;
    • Total straight-time earnings each workweek;
    • Total overtime earnings each workweek;
    • Total additions to or deductions from wages;
    • Total gross wages paid each pay period;
    • Date of each payment.

  Employers must keep wage and hour records for 3 years.

  The employer does not have to give its employees any advanced notice of having to work extra hours. An employer can inform employees that they must work overtime at the last minute. The employer does not have to consider how the work schedule will affect an employee’s personal life.

Any work performed beyond 40 hours in a week is considered overtime work.

Pay: An employee is entitled to premium pay at the rate of 1.5 times their regular rate for all hours worked excess in a workweek.

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.

The North Carolina Wage and Hour Act does not require mandatory rest breaks or meal breaks for employees 16 years of age or older.

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.