Hospital / residential-care 8 and 80 overtime checklist
Static educational checklist — not a calculator. No 14-day punch grids, no daily-vs-80 credit engines, no live overtime math. Spot common FLSA § 7(j) / 29 CFR § 778.601 hospital and residential-care “8 and 80” red flags: when a fixed 14-day period may replace the ordinary 7-day workweek, when overtime is due for hours over 8 in a workday and over 80 in the period, and when payroll collapses that special system with weekly-40, public-agency § 7(k) fire/police work periods, or California alternative-workweek elections. Distinct from the compensatory-time (§ 7(o)), sleep-time, alternative-workweek, and premium-credit cheat-sheet pages.
Baseline — what § 7(j) / § 778.601 require (and do not)
Under 29 U.S.C. § 207(j) and 29 CFR § 778.601, an employer engaged in the operation of a hospital or an institution primarily engaged in the care of the sick, the aged, or the mentally ill or defective who reside on the premises may — by prior agreement or understanding with the employee — establish a fixed and regularly recurring period of 14 consecutive days for overtime computation in lieu of the ordinary workweek. When that agreement is in place, overtime compensation at not less than one and one-half times the regular rate is required for employment in excess of 8 hours in any workday and in excess of 80 hours in that 14-day period. Daily overtime is due even when the period never exceeds 80 hours. Under §§ 7(h) and 7(e)(5), premium payments for daily overtime hours within the period may be credited toward overtime due for hours over 80 — they are not supposed to be paid twice, and they are not supposed to vanish. WHD Fact Sheet #54 restates the same framework. § 7(j) is an employer-type + prior-agreement + 14-day period rule — it is not a § 7(k) fire/police work-period exemption, not private-security overtime relief, and not permission to float between weekly-40 and 8/80 for the same employee. This page does not compute 8/80 overtime — it only flags compliance red flags.
Checklist — hospital / residential-care 8 and 80 red flags
No prior agreement / understanding before the work is performed. Flag “we always run 8/80” practices with no employee agreement, stale handbook language that never reached the affected staff, or retroactive elections after a busy census week. § 778.601 and Fact Sheet #54 require a prior agreement or understanding before the work is performed.
Non-hospital / non–residential-care employers force-fitted into 8/80. Flag clinics without inpatient care, ambulatory surgery centers, private home-health agencies, staffing agencies, or ordinary offices that borrow the 14-day / 80-hour frame. § 7(j) is limited to hospitals and qualifying residential-care institutions — employer label marketing does not expand the statute.
Floating, shortened, or dual 7-day / 14-day systems for one employee. Flag schedules that flip an RN between weekly-40 and 8/80 mid-roster, “14-day periods” that restart whenever census dips, or permanent-change paperwork that never pays the more advantageous transition period. Fact Sheet #54: an employer may use 8/80 for some employees and weekly 40 for others, but not both systems for the same individual; period changes must be designated permanent and not used to evade overtime.
Daily-over-8 ignored when the 14-day total stays under 80. Flag payroll macros that only look at hours over 80 and treat nine 8.5-hour days (76.5 hours) as all straight time. § 778.601(d) requires daily overtime for hours over 8 in any workday whether or not more than 80 hours are worked in the period.
Daily premium not credited toward hours over 80 — or double-paid / double-vanished. Flag stubs that pay daily OT and then pay another full OT premium on the same hours over 80, and the reverse error that “credits” daily premium into oblivion so leftover hours over 80 never receive overtime. §§ 7(h) / 7(e)(5) / § 778.601(d) allow credit of qualifying daily premium toward overtime due over 80 — not double payment and not erasure of uncredited leftover hours.
§ 7(k) fire/police / private-security / Belo / FWW collapses. Flag private ambulance or hospital security crews parked on § 7(k) 171/212 work periods, public-safety employees force-fitted into hospital 8/80, or Belo / fluctuating-workweek guarantees used as a substitute for the § 7(j) prior agreement. § 7(k) is public-agency fire/law-enforcement only; § 7(j) is hospital / residential-care 8 and 80 only.
California Order 5 / Labor Code § 510 double-after-12 overlays ignored (or misapplied). Flag CA hospital / residential-care employers on a federal 8/80 agreement who never check Labor Code § 510 double time after 12 in a workday, and the reverse error of treating a California alternative-workweek election (Labor Code § 511) as a federal § 7(j) agreement. Federal 8/80 and CA daily / AWW rules can stack or diverge.
Sleep-time / 24-hour tour myths mixed into 8/80 without § 785.22 gates. Flag 24-hour residential or hospital tours that auto-exclude 8 hours of sleep without a bona fide agreement, adequate facilities, or the usual uninterrupted-night test — or that exclude sleep on tours under 24 hours. Sleep exclusion is a Part 785 hours-worked question that can sit beside 8/80; it is not automatic with § 7(j).
Regular-rate / stub / record gaps. Flag 8/80 schedules that never revisit the regular rate when shift differentials or nondiscretionary bonuses land in the 14-day period, wage statements that never show daily-over-8 vs hours-over-80 vs credited-premium lines, missing prior-agreement records, and unsigned “14-day period” calendars. Record gaps turn every census surge into a he-said / she-said overtime fight.