Flextime: What It Means for Employers

What it means in practice

What flextime means. The Department of Labor's flexible schedules page describes a flexible work schedule as an alternative to the traditional 9-to-5, 40-hour workweek that lets employees vary their time of arrival and departure. It notes that some policies require employees to work a set number of hours each pay period and to be present during a daily "core time." Two terms do most of the work. Core hours are the period when everyone on the schedule must be at work. Flexible hours, sometimes called flexible time bands, are the windows at the start and end of the day when each employee picks an arrival and departure time. Flextime is different from a compressed schedule, which fits the same hours into fewer, longer days; see our entry on the 4-day work week.

The federal baseline for private employers. The Department of Labor states that the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not address flexible work schedules and that such arrangements are a matter of agreement between the employer and the employee or the employee's representative. Its FLSA Advisor adds that the FLSA has no provisions on scheduling employees, apart from certain child labor provisions, and that an employer may change an employee's work hours without prior notice or consent unless a prior agreement with the employee or the employee's representative says otherwise. What the FLSA does regulate is pay for hours actually worked, on any schedule.

Overtime still runs by the workweek. For covered employees who are not exempt (see exempt vs. non-exempt), the Department of Labor says overtime is owed for hours worked over 40 in a workweek at not less than time and one-half the regular rate. The workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours, and once its starting time is set it stays fixed regardless of the schedule of hours worked (29 CFR 778.105). The Act takes a single workweek as its standard and does not permit averaging hours over two or more weeks (29 CFR 778.104). It does not generally require overtime for hours over eight in a day or for weekend or holiday work as such (29 CFR 778.102). For a non-exempt employee, then, flextime can move hours around freely inside one workweek, but hours shifted from one workweek into the next are counted in the week they are worked.

Which hours count. Work not requested but suffered or permitted is work time; the regulations give the example of an employee who keeps working at the end of the shift, and say the reason is immaterial (29 CFR 785.11). The rule also applies to work done away from the job site or at home if the employer knows or has reason to believe it is being performed (29 CFR 785.12). Management must use its control to see that unwanted work is not performed, and merely issuing a rule against it is not enough (29 CFR 785.13). Our hours worked entry covers these rules in more depth.

Recordkeeping. For each non-exempt employee, employers must keep records that include the time of day and day of week on which the workweek begins, hours worked each workday, total hours worked each workweek, straight-time earnings and total overtime premium pay (29 CFR 516.2). Fact Sheet #21 says employers may use any timekeeping method they choose, as long as it is complete and accurate, and the Act requires no particular form. It also allows a shortcut for employees on fixed schedules: the employer may keep a record of the exact schedule and note that the worker followed it, but must record the hours actually worked when they differ. Under flextime the start and stop times vary by design, so the hours actually worked are what must be captured. Payroll records must be preserved for at least 3 years (29 CFR 516.5), and time cards showing daily starting and stopping times for at least 2 years (29 CFR 516.6).

Flexitime in the federal workforce. Federal agencies run flexible schedules under 5 U.S.C. 6120 and the sections that follow, first added in 1982 (Pub. L. 97-221). Congress found that flexible and compressed schedules have the potential to improve productivity in the federal government and provide greater service to the public (5 U.S.C. 6120). Each agency may establish programs with designated hours and days when an employee must be present for work and designated hours when the employee may choose arrival and departure times (5 U.S.C. 6122(a)). These rules govern federal agencies, not private employers.

OPM's schedule types. The Office of Personnel Management's Handbook on Alternative Work Schedules defines a flexitour as a schedule in which the employee selects starting and stopping times within the flexible hours, which then stay fixed until the agency allows a new selection. Under a gliding schedule, a full-time employee works 8 hours a day and 40 a week but may change starting and stopping times daily. Variable day, variable week and maxiflex schedules let hours vary by day or week, with a maxiflex having core hours on fewer than 10 workdays in the biweekly pay period. A compressed schedule, by contrast, is an 80-hour biweekly requirement scheduled for fewer than 10 workdays (5 U.S.C. 6121(5)).

Credit hours and federal overtime. Credit hours are hours within a flexible schedule, beyond the basic work requirement, that the employee elects to work to vary the length of a workweek or workday (5 U.S.C. 6121(4)). For flexible schedule programs, overtime hours are hours over 8 in a day or 40 in a week that are officially ordered in advance, and they do not include credit hours (5 U.S.C. 6121(6)). A full-time employee may carry over no more than 24 credit hours between biweekly pay periods, and a part-time employee no more than one-fourth of the biweekly basic work requirement; when an employee leaves the program, accumulated credit hours up to those limits are paid at the current rate of basic pay (5 U.S.C. 6126). The OPM handbook adds that members of the Senior Executive Service may participate but may not accumulate credit hours. Banking hours this way is a creature of the federal statute; the FLSA rule for private employers is that each workweek stands alone.

Example 1: shifting hours within one week. A non-exempt employee paid $20 an hour, on a workweek that runs Sunday through Saturday, leaves 2 hours early on Tuesday and works 2 extra hours on Thursday. The week totals 40 hours, so no federal overtime is due and the pay is $800 (40 x $20). The FLSA does not generally require overtime for hours over eight in a day (29 CFR 778.102).

Example 2: banking hours across weeks. The same employee works 45 hours in week one, planning to "bank" 5 hours, and 35 hours in week two. Because each workweek stands alone (29 CFR 778.104), week one includes 5 overtime hours: 40 x $20 plus 5 x $30 equals $950. Week two pays 35 x $20, or $700. The two weeks total $1,650, not the $1,600 that 80 straight-time hours would produce, even though the average is 40 hours a week.

Flexible schedules as a disability accommodation. The ADA regulations list "part-time or modified work schedules" among possible reasonable accommodations, and the ADA applies to employers with 15 or more employees for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year (29 CFR 1630.2(e) and (o)). The EEOC's reasonable accommodation guidance answers yes to whether an employer must allow a modified or part-time schedule as a reasonable accommodation, absent undue hardship, even if it does not offer such schedules to other employees. It says a modified schedule may involve adjusting arrival or departure times, providing periodic breaks or altering when certain functions are performed. If a modified schedule would be an undue hardship, the employer must consider reassignment to a vacant position that would allow the requested hours. See the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) entry.

FMLA reduced schedule leave. Under the FMLA, which covers private employers with 50 or more employees in 20 or more workweeks in the current or previous calendar year and all public agencies (29 CFR 825.104), an eligible employee may take leave intermittently or on a reduced leave schedule when medically necessary. A reduced leave schedule reduces the employee's usual number of working hours per workweek or per workday (29 CFR 825.202). Leave after the birth or placement of a healthy child may be taken this way only if the employer agrees. For foreseeable leave based on planned medical treatment, the employer may require a temporary transfer to an alternative position with equivalent pay and benefits, but not to discourage the leave (29 CFR 825.204).

Where states differ. Some states count overtime by the day, which changes how flextime works there. As an example, California's Wage Order 4, published by the Department of Industrial Relations and covering professional, technical, clerical, mechanical and similar occupations, requires time and one-half for hours over 8 up to 12 in a workday and over 40 in a workweek, and double time over 12 in a workday (section 3(A)). Its makeup time rule, section 3(M), says that if an employer approves an employee's written request to make up work time lost because of a personal obligation, makeup hours worked in the same workweek do not count toward daily overtime, except hours over 11 in a day or 40 in the week. The employee must sign a written request for each occasion, may request up to four weeks in advance for a recurring obligation, and the employer may inform employees of the option but may not encourage or solicit requests. See our California labor laws entry. Other states differ; the Department of Labor lists state labor offices.

What the data show. The Bureau of Labor Statistics release Job Flexibilities and Work Schedules, published September 24, 2026, reports that in 2024-25, 57 percent of wage and salary workers had a flexible schedule in which they could vary the times they began and ended work. Of those, 36 percent could change their schedule frequently, 45 percent occasionally and 19 percent only rarely. The figures were 58 percent for men and 55 percent for women, and 60 percent in the private sector compared with 40 percent in the public sector. Table 4 shows 54.0 percent of full-time and 65.4 percent of part-time workers with flexible schedules, ranging by occupation from 73.5 percent in management, business and financial operations to 39.8 percent in production. The data come from the American Time Use Survey Leave and Job Flexibilities Module, sponsored by the DOL Women's Bureau, with about 6,600 respondents. The self-employed are excluded, and 2025 data cover 11 months because collection paused during a shutdown.

FAQ: Does federal law require employers to offer flextime? The Department of Labor says the FLSA does not address flexible schedules and that they are a matter of agreement. A schedule change can still be required as a disability accommodation under the ADA, absent undue hardship (EEOC).

FAQ: Can a non-exempt employee bank extra hours for a later week? Not without overtime consequences under the FLSA. Each workweek stands alone and averaging over two or more weeks is not permitted (29 CFR 778.104). Credit hour banking is a federal agency program under 5 U.S.C. 6126.

FAQ: Can an employer change or end a flextime arrangement? Under the FLSA Advisor, yes, unless a prior agreement provides otherwise; an ADA accommodation, FMLA leave or state law can limit that.

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