Work Hours and Legal Limits
Employees cannot complete a shift longer than 16 hours in a single day. Any labor period exceeding 12 hours must be followed by a significant rest period.
The FLSA sets no limits on required daily or weekly work hours. It requires employers pay overtime (time and a half regular pay rate) for any hours over 40 per week. For adult employees, no legal limit exists on maximum weekly work hours.
Hospital Shift Structures
Hospitals operate 24/7, requiring shift work nights, holidays, and weekends. Shifts can be morning, evening, or nights. Sometimes supervisors work double shifts – directly from morning to evening or evening to nights. These double shifts provide double salary but are challenging.
Shift lengths depend on hospital policies and shift patterns used. Nurses working 8-hour shifts five days a week, work 40 hours. Those on 10-hour shifts four days a week, also work 40 hours. Nurses on 12-hour shifts three days a week, work 36 hours. But some hospitals insist on 40 hours per week or 80 hours per two weeks. So these nurses work six 12-hour shifts and one 8-hour shift in a two-week period.