What Is A "Workweek", And Why Should You Care?

Many compensation policies and similar documents refer to wages for non-exempt employees in the context of a "week", a "pay week", a "pay period", "the schedule", an "overtime week", or some other ambiguous word or phrase.  But the timeframe that matters under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act is a term-of-art:  A "workweek".  For instance, with few exceptions, FLSA overtime pay is due for a non-exempt employee's hours worked over 40 in a single workweek, which is not necessarily the same thing as the calendar week or an employee's scheduled week or pay period.

An FLSA workweek is a fixed, regularly-recurring period of 168 hours – that is, seven, consecutive, 24-hour periods – that the employer expressly adopts in order to maintain FLSA compliance.  FLSA recordkeeping regulations require covered employers to select and document at least one such workweek.  The workweek can be set to begin on any calendar day and at any time of day, but thereafter the employer