550.112—Computation of overtime work.

The computation of the amount of overtime work of an employee is subject to the following conditions:

(a) Time spent in principal activities. Principal activities are the activities that an employee is employed to perform. They are the activities that an employee performs during his or her regularly scheduled administrative workweek (including regular overtime work) and activities performed by an employee during periods of irregular or occasional overtime work authorized under § 550.111. Overtime work in principal activities shall be credited as follows:

(1) An employee shall be compensated for every minute of regular overtime work.

(2) A quarter of an hour shall be the largest fraction of an hour used for crediting irregular or occasional overtime work under this subpart. When irregular or occasional overtime work is performed in other than the full fraction, odd minutes shall be rounded up or rounded down to the nearest full fraction of an hour used to credit overtime work.

(b) Time spent in preshift or postshift activities. A preshift activity is a preparatory activity that an employee performs prior to the commencement of his or her principal activities, and a postshift activity is a concluding activity that an employee performs after the completion of his or her principal activities. Such activities are not principal activities as defined in paragraph (a) of this section.

(1) (i) If the head of a department reasonably determines that a preshift or postshift activity is closely related to an employee's principal activities, and is indispensable to the performance of the principal activities, and that the total time spent in that activity is more than 10 minutes per daily tour of duty, he or she shall credit all of the time spent in that activity, including the 10 minutes, as hours of work.

(ii) If the time spent in a preshift or postshift activity is compensable as hours of work, the head of the department shall schedule the time period for the employee to perform that activity. An employee shall be credited with the actual time spent in that activity during the time period scheduled by the head of the department. In no case shall the time credited for the performance of an activity exceed the time scheduled by the head of the department. If the time period scheduled by the head of the department for the performance of a pereshift or postshift activity is outside the employee's daily tour of duty, the employee shall be credited with the time spent performing that activity in accordance with paragraph (a)(2) of this section.

(2) A preshift or postshift activity that is not closely related to the performance of the principal activities is considered a preliminary or postliminary activity. Time spent in preliminary or postliminary activities is excluded from hours of work and is not compensable, even if it occurs between periods of activity that are compensable as hours of work.

(c) Leave with pay. An employee's absence from duty on authorized leave with pay under subchapter I of chapter 61 of title 5, United States Code, during the time when he would otherwise have been required to be on duty during a basic workweek (including authorized absence on a legal holiday, on a nonworkday established by Executive or administrative order, and on compensatory time off as provided in § 550.114) is deemed employment and does not reduce the amount of overtime pay to which the employee is entitled during an administrative workweek. Leave of absence with pay under subchapter I of chapter 61 of title 5, United States Code, is charged only for an absence that occurs during a basic workweek.

(d) Leave without pay. (1) For a period of leave without pay in an employee's basic workweek, an equal period of service performed outside the basic workweek, but in the same administrative workweek, shall be substituted and paid for at the rate applicable to his basic workweek before any remaining period of service may be paid for at the overtime rate on the basis of exceeding 40 hours in a workweek.

(2) For a period of leave without pay in an employee's daily tour of duty, an equal period of service performed outside the daily tour, but in the same workday, shall be substituted and paid for at the rate applicable to his daily tour of duty before any remaining period of service may be paid for at the overtime rate on the basis of exceeding 8 hours in a workday.

(e) Absence during overtime periods. Except as provided by paragraph (a) of this section, as expressly authorized by statute, or to the extent authorized while the employee is in a travel status, a period is counted as overtime work only when the employee actually performs work during the period or is taking compensatory time off as provided in § 550.114.

(f) Night, Sunday, or holiday work. Hours of night, Sunday, or holiday work are included in determining for overtime pay purposes the total number of hours of work in an administrative workweek.

(g) Time in travel status. Time in travel status away from the official duty-station of an employee is deemed employment only when:

(1) It is within his regularly scheduled administrative workweek, including regular overtime work; or

(2) The travel—

(i) Involves the performance of actual work while traveling;

(ii) Is incident to travel that involves the performance of work while traveling;

(iii) Is carried out under such arduous and unusual conditions that the travel is inseparable from work; or

(iv) Results from an event which could not be scheduled or controlled administratively, including travel by an employee to such an event and the return of the employee to his or her official-duty station.

(h) Call-back overtime work. Irregular or occasional overtime work performed by an employee on a day when work was not scheduled for him, or for which he is required to return to his place of employment, is deemed at least 2 hours in duration for the purpose of premium pay, either in money or compensatory time off.

(i) Periods of duty that are compensated by annual premium pay under 5 U.S.C. 5545(c) (1) or (2) shall not be credited for the purpose of determining hours of work in excess of 8 hours in a day.

(j) Official duty station. An agency may prescribe a mileage radius of not greater than 50 miles to determine whether an employee's travel is within or outside the limits of the employee's official duty station for determining entitlement to overtime pay for travel under paragraph (g) of this section except that—

(1) An agency's definition of an employee's official duty station for determining overtime pay for travel may not be smaller than the definition of “official station and post of duty” under the Federal Travel Regulation issued by the General Services Administration ( 41 CFR 300-3.1 ); and

(2) Travel from home to work and vice versa is not hours of work. When an employee travels directly from home to a temporary duty location outside the limits of his or her official duty station, the time the employee would have spent in normal home to work travel shall be deducted from hours of work.

(k) Standby duty. (1) An employee is on duty, and time spent on standby duty is hours of work if, for work-related reasons, the employee is restricted by official order to a designated post of duty and is assigned to be in a state of readiness to perform work with limitations on the employee's activities so substantial that the employee cannot use the time effectively for his or her own purposes. A finding that an employee's activities are substantially limited may not be based on the fact that an employee is subject to restrictions necessary to ensure that the employee will be able to perform his or her duties and responsibilities, such as restrictions on alcohol consumption or use of certain medications.

(2) An employee is not considered restricted for “work-related reasons” if, for example, the employee remains at the post of duty voluntarily, or if the restriction is a natural result of geographic isolation or the fact that the employee resides on the agency's premises. For example, in the case of an employee assigned to work in a remote wildland area or on a ship, the fact that the employee has limited mobility when relieved from duty would not be a basis for finding that the employee is restricted for work-related reasons.

(l) On-call status. An employee is off duty, and time spent in an on-call status is not hours of work if—

(1) The employee is allowed to leave a telephone number or carry an electronic device for the purpose of being contacted, even though the employee is required to remain within a reasonable call-back radius; or

(2) The employee is allowed to make arrangements for another person to perform any work that may arise during the on-call period.

(m) Sleep and meal time. (1) Bona fide sleep and meal periods may not be considered hours of work, except as provided in paragraphs (m)(2), (m)(3), and (m)(4) of this section. If a sleep or meal period is interrupted by a call to duty, the time spent on duty is hours of work.

(2) Sleep and meal periods during regularly scheduled tours of duty are hours of work for employees who receive annual premium pay for regularly scheduled standby duty under 5 U.S.C. 5545(c)(1).

(3) When employees are assigned to work shifts of 24 hours or more during which they must remain within the confines of their duty station in a standby status, and for which they do not receive annual premium pay for regularly scheduled standby duty under 5 U.S.C. 5545(c)(1), the amount of bona fide sleep and meal time excluded from hours of work may not exceed 8 hours in any 24-hour period. No sleep time may be excluded unless the employee had the opportunity to have an uninterrupted period of at least 5 hours of sleep during the applicable sleep period. For work shifts of less than 24 hours, agencies may not exclude on-duty sleep periods from hours of work, but must exclude bona fide meal periods during which the employee is completely relieved from duty.

(4) For firefighters compensated under 5 U.S.C. 5545b, on-duty sleep and meal time may not be excluded from hours of work.

Code of Federal Regulations

[33 FR 12458, Sept. 4, 1968, as amended at 33 FR 18669, Dec. 18, 1968; 48 FR 3934, Jan. 28, 1983; 48 FR 36805, Aug. 15, 1983; 56 FR 20342, May 3, 1991; 57 FR 59279, Dec. 15, 1992; 59 FR 66332, Dec. 28, 1994; 64 FR 69175, Dec. 10, 1999; 72 FR 12035, Mar. 15, 2007]