Can My Employer Force Me to Work Overtime? — In Plain Words
This page answers the question with the federal rule, in the U.S. Department of Labor’s own words. The two sources are the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division Fact Sheet #23, “Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA,” and the Department of Labor’s “Overtime Pay” topic page. FLSA is the Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal law both sources explain.
The short version is this: the federal law these sources describe sets rules about pay for overtime. It does not set a limit on how many hours an employer may require an adult to work. Read on for exactly what the Department of Labor says — and, just as plainly, what these two sources do not cover.
Short answer: Fact Sheet #23 begins: “An employer who requires or permits an employee to work overtime is generally required to pay the employee premium pay for such overtime work.” And the Department of Labor’s Overtime Pay page states: “There is no limit in the Act on the number of hours employees aged 16 and older may work in any workweek.” So under the federal law these sources describe, the protection is in the pay rate — not in a cap on the hours an employer can require of a worker aged 16 or older.
This page is general information only. It is not legal advice, and it does not decide anything about any reader’s own job.
The pay rule the federal law does set
Fact Sheet #23 states the requirements this way: “Unless specifically exempted, employees covered by the Act must receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay.”
The Department of Labor’s Overtime Pay page says the same thing in nearly the same words: “Unless exempt, employees covered by the Act must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay.”
Two honest cautions about that rule, both in the sources’ own words. First, coverage is not automatic for every worker: the sentences above begin “unless specifically exempted” and “unless exempt.” These two sources do not list which jobs are exempt — that is a separate topic, and this page does not guess at it. Second, the rule is about hours over 40 in a single workweek, which the next section explains.
What counts as a workweek
Fact Sheet #23: “The Act applies on a workweek basis. An employee’s workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour periods. It need not coincide with the calendar week, but may begin on any day and at any hour of the day. Different workweeks may be established for different employees or groups of employees. Averaging of hours over two or more weeks is not permitted. Normally, overtime pay earned in a particular workweek must be paid on the regular pay day for the pay period in which the wages were earned.”
In plain words: a long week cannot be averaged away with a short week. The count happens week by week, and the overtime pay is due on the regular payday for that pay period.
Weekends and holidays, as the sources state them
Fact Sheet #23: “The Act does not require overtime pay for work on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, or regular days of rest, as such.” The Overtime Pay page words it: “The FLSA does not require overtime pay for work on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, or regular days of rest, unless overtime is worked on such days.”
So the day of the week is not what triggers the federal overtime rate in these sources. The trigger is the number of hours worked in the workweek going over 40.
The pay right cannot be signed away
Fact Sheet #23 has a section headed “Overtime Pay May Not Be Waived.” It states: “The overtime requirement may not be waived by agreement between the employer and employees. An agreement that only 8 hours a day or only 40 hours a week will be counted as working time also fails the test of FLSA compliance.”
The same section adds: “An announcement by the employer that no overtime work will be permitted, or that overtime work will not be paid for unless authorized in advance, also will not impair the employee’s right to compensation for compensable overtime hours that are worked.”
Read those two passages for exactly what they say. They are about the pay for overtime hours that are worked. They are not a statement about scheduling, and this page does not stretch them into one.
A note on how the pay is figured
Fact Sheet #23 adds two points about the regular rate, printed here briefly because they affect what the overtime rate is figured from. “The regular rate of pay cannot be less than the minimum wage.” And: “Earnings may be determined on a piece-rate, salary, commission, or some other basis, but in all such cases the overtime pay due must be computed on the basis of the average hourly rate derived from such earnings.” The fact sheet works its own examples for salaried and flat-sum pay; those examples belong to the fact sheet, and this page points you to it rather than reworking them.
What these sources do not cover — stated plainly. The two Department of Labor sources read for this page do not discuss any of the following, and this page does not fill the gaps:
- They do not state a right to refuse required overtime, and they do not discuss what happens if a worker refuses. The only hours statement they make is the one quoted above: no limit in the Act on the hours employees aged 16 and older may work in a workweek.
- They do not state any state’s rules. Some states have their own wage and hour laws; nothing on this page describes them, and nothing here should be read as the rule in any state.
- They do not list which workers are exempt from the overtime rule. They only mark that exemptions exist.
- They do not cover workers under 16. The no-limit sentence is expressly about employees aged 16 and older; younger workers are handled by different rules in other Department of Labor materials.
- They do not discuss union contracts, employment agreements, or company policies, any of which can set terms of their own.
Fact Sheet #23 closes with its own caution, which this page repeats because it applies here too: “This publication is for general information and is not to be considered in the same light as official statements of position contained in the regulations.”
If you have a question about your own situation
This page cannot answer questions about any one person’s job, and it does not try. The Department of Labor prints a phone number on both sources read for this page: the Wage and Hour Division can be reached at 1-866-4-US-WAGE (1-866-487-9243). A state labor agency, a union representative, or an employment lawyer can speak to the rules that apply to a specific job in a specific state.
Sources
U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division — Fact Sheet #23: “Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA.” https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/23-flsa-overtime-pay Every quoted passage about premium pay, the workweek, weekend and holiday work, and the rule that overtime pay may not be waived comes from this fact sheet.
U.S. Department of Labor — “Overtime Pay” topic page. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/overtime The sentence stating there is no limit in the Act on the number of hours employees aged 16 and older may work in any workweek appears on both sources; it is quoted above from this page.
Checked November 2026
This page is general information only. It is not legal advice, and it does not decide anything about any reader’s own job.
Only the Department of Labor, a state labor agency, or a court can speak to a specific worker’s case. This page decides nothing.