Do I Get Paid for Being on Call? — In Plain Words

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The on-call passage, in the Department of Labor's own words

Fact Sheet #22 has a short section headed “On-Call Time.” Here is that section in full, word for word:

“An employee who is required to remain on call on the employer's premises is working while ‘on call.’ An employee who is required to remain on call at home, or who is allowed to leave a message where he/she can be reached, is not working (in most cases) while on call. Additional constraints on the employee's freedom could require this time to be compensated.”

That is the whole on-call section of the sheet. The sections below explain it in plain words, using only what the sheet itself says. Where the sheet stops, this page says so. This page does not add rules the sheet does not print.

The deciding idea, in plain words

The sheet's test turns on how tied down the employee is while waiting.

• Must stay at the workplace. If the employee has to remain on call on the employer's premises, the sheet counts that time as working.
• Can be at home, and can just be reached. If the employee has to remain on call at home, or only has to leave a message saying where he or she can be reached, the sheet says the employee is not working while on call, in most cases.
• Extra limits on freedom can change the answer. The sheet's own closing line on the subject is: “Additional constraints on the employee's freedom could require this time to be compensated.” The sheet does not list which extra limits count, and it does not give an on-call example of its own.

In short, as the sheet frames it: the more the on-call duty keeps the employee at the employer's place, the more the sheet treats the time as work. The more the employee is free to be at home and simply be reachable, the more the sheet treats the time as not work — unless added limits on the employee's freedom require the time to be compensated.

This page cannot say whether a particular on-call setup counts as working time. The sheet prints the test above, and this page prints that test, not a verdict on any one job.

How the sheet frames hours worked more broadly

Fact Sheet #22 opens by saying: “This fact sheet provides general information concerning what constitutes compensable time under the FLSA.”

On the meaning of “employ,” the sheet says:

“By statutory definition the term ‘employ’ includes ‘to suffer or permit to work.’ The workweek ordinarily includes all time during which an employee is necessarily required to be on the employer's premises, on duty or at a prescribed work place.”

The sheet also says work not requested but suffered or permitted to be performed is work time that must be paid for by the employer, and that the reason is immaterial — the hours are work time and are compensable. That is the sheet's general framing. The on-call section above is the part of the sheet that speaks directly to being on call.

Waiting time, as the same sheet frames it

Right before the on-call section, the sheet covers waiting time in general. It says:

“Whether waiting time is hours worked under the Act depends upon the particular circumstances. Generally, the facts may show that the employee was engaged to wait (which is work time) or the facts may show that the employee was waiting to be engaged (which is not work time).”

The sheet gives its own examples for waiting time:

“For example, a secretary who reads a book while waiting for dictation or a fireman who plays checkers while waiting for an alarm is working during such periods of inactivity. These employees have been ‘engaged to wait.’”

Those examples are the sheet's waiting-time examples. They are printed here because the sheet places them next to the on-call section and they show the same basic split the sheet uses — time spent waiting as part of the job, against time spent waiting to be called into the job. The sheet does not present them as on-call examples, and this page does not present them that way either.

What the sheet does not say about being on call

The on-call section of Fact Sheet #22 is three sentences long, and it does not go further. Plainly stated, the sheet:

• does not list the kinds of added limits on an employee's freedom that would require on-call time to be compensated;
• does not give an example of an on-call worker, at the workplace or at home;
• does not set out a separate rule, inside the on-call section, for the time spent answering or responding to a call that comes in;
• does not state a rate, an amount, or a separate on-call payment in the on-call section.

This page does not fill those gaps from any other source. If a question turns on limits or facts the sheet does not cover, the sheet's test above is what this page can offer, and no more.

This page is general information only. It is not legal advice.