Overtime Question

[ccarlin52]

Alright I know you all are probably getting tired of my seemingly endless questions haha, but I just wanted to ask you guys how overtime works for a department that does 24 on 48 off. Is 40 hours still considered a full work week like mandated an normal jobs or is a full work week for firefighters different? Any help would be appreciated and once again thank you all for all your input. You all here on the forums have made learning more about firefighting great for me!

Cole

[mrpita]

OK, not a 24/48 guy but I'll give it a shot. First, google "FLSA and firefighter". The Fair Labor Standards Act is the law that grants OT for working over 40 hr/week. BUT, it also holds certain exemptions. One of those is gov't FF; instead, the threshold is set at 53 hours/week. It's actually a wee bit more complicated but close enough. Note this only applies to public-sector FF; private sector (such as industrial dept.) FF are still on the 40 hr/week deal.

There are other factors that can come into play, such as sleep time, comp time, on call/standby time, etc.

[SMOKEEATERFF]

We receive 3 different bi-weekly checks. Our base check is 106 hrs. no overtime the other 2 have overtime on them.

[jbrescue]

Our's is set up as a 51.7 hour work week. Any shift that you work other than your scheduled shift, not trades, is overtime. This includes classes, etc.