24.16.501    WORKWEEK

(1) A workweek is a regularly recurring period of 168 hours in the form of seven consecutive 24-hour periods. The workweek need not coincide with the calendar week - it may begin any day of the week and any hour of the day. Each workweek stands alone. Employment for two or more workweeks cannot be averaged out for the sake of figuring overtime or minimum wages. The beginning of the workweek may be changed if the change is intended to be permanent and is not designed to evade the overtime requirements of the law. The workweek is to be taken as the standard in determining the applicability of the law. Thus if in any workweek an employee is engaged in both covered and noncovered work he is entitled to both the wage and hours benefits of the law for all the time worked in that week, unless exempted there from by some specific provision of the law. The proportion of his time spent by the employee in each type of work is not material. If he spends any part of the workweek in covered work he will be considered on exactly the same basis as if he had engaged exclusively in such work for the entire period. Accordingly, the total number of hours which he works during the workweek at both types of work must be compensated for in accordance with the minimum wage and overtime pay provisions of the law.

(2) It is thus recognized that an employee may be subject to the law in one workweek and not in the next.

History: Sec. 39-3-403, MCA; IMP, Sec. 39-3-405, MCA; Eff. 12/31/72.