Regular time observation

 Regular time means a non-exempt employee's normal (scheduled/shift) work hours and does not include overtime hours worked.  In other words, regular time is an employee's normal schedule.

Because regular time pertains only to non-exempt employees, it does not apply to salaried (exempt) employees.

Why is regular time important?

It's important to know how many of an employee's hours are regular time, so that you can compensate them appropriately if they work overtime hours. If you don't differentiate these hours, you could accidentally pay your employees the wrong amount and be fined by the Department of Labor (DOL).

How do you calculate regular hours?

An employee's regular hours are all hours that do not exceed 40 hours in a workweek.

To calculate how many regular hours an employee worked, you must first calculate their total hours. Follow these steps to find the time worked:

1. Determine when the employee started and finished work.  This is usually done with time-tracking software or punch cards.
2. Calculate how many hours the employee worked  . Subtract the start time from the end time. For example, if the employee started work at 8:00 AM and finished at 6:30 PM, they worked 10 hours and 30 minutes.
3. Convert minutes to fractions  . If the employee did not work an even number of hours, you can convert the number of extra minutes they had to a decimal by dividing the minutes by 60. Using the example above, we would divide 30 by 60 to get .5. Add this to the full hours worked and you get 10.5 hours.
4. Subtract unpaid time  . Let's say the employee took a half-hour unpaid lunch. You would subtract this from the total. Using the example above again, the employee's total hours are 10 hours.

Repeat this process for each day the employee worked to find the total hours for the workweek, and compare those hours to the employee's regular hours, which is the standard 40 hours per week.

For example, if an employee worked a total of 45 hours in a week, it means he worked 40 regular hours and five overtime hours.

What counts as regular time?

 According to  the Fair Labor Standards Act , the DOL requires employers to count any time worked as regular time if the work can be defined by any one of the following:

• This work benefits the employer
• The employer is aware of the work being completed by the employee
• The employer has not prevented the employee from completing the task

Employees do not need to be “on the clock” or physically present at the worksite for their work to count as regular time or overtime. As long as the tasks they complete meet the criteria above, their work counts as regular time.

What is regular employee status?

Regular employee status means that an employee is hired for a continuous and indefinite period of time. This ensures that the employee   will get a certain number of hours in a given work week (a recurring period of 168 hours).

For example, a full-time employee must work 40 hours per week, or the number of hours the employer considers full-time. Part-time employees can work any number of hours less than full-time that they and their employer have agreed upon.

What is the difference between full time and regular?

Being a regular employee simply means that they are not temporary employees; they are employees who have been hired for an indefinite period of time. Thus, regular-time employees can be both full-time and part-time employees - regular status is not limited to only full-time employees.

In addition, not every full-time employee is guaranteed to be a regular employee. Many full-time employees are hired on a seasonal or contractual basis. The same is true for many part-time employees, such as interns.