Quick answer: Federal law doesn’t limit how many hours an adult team member (age 16 or older) can work in a single day. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) focuses on total hours in the workweek, requiring overtime pay at 1.5x the regular rate after 40 hours weekly—not on daily limits.
However, some states, like California, Alaska, Nevada, and Colorado, add daily overtime and break requirements that can make long shifts more expensive or more tightly regulated than federal law alone.
How Does Federal Law Treat Daily Work Hours?
Here's the good news: federal law gives you surprising flexibility with daily scheduling. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the FLSA "does not limit the number of hours hourly teams 16 years of age or older may work in any workday or workweek."
Here's what this means for your business:
- You can schedule double shifts for your servers.
- You can have retail associates work 12-hour Black Friday shifts.
- You can ask your kitchen manager to pull a 16-hour day during your busiest weekend.
Federal law won't penalize you for long shifts. It only requires overtime pay when hourly teams exceed 40 hours in their workweek.
That said, if you operate in California, Colorado, Nevada, or Alaska, state laws impose daily overtime requirements that change how you schedule shifts, regardless of weekly totals. Check your state's specific requirements before scheduling extended shifts. These rules hit your labor costs hard.
What About State Laws and Break Requirements?
Here's where it gets complicated for multi-location businesses. While most states follow federal guidelines and impose no daily hour limits, seven states enforce daily overtime triggers that significantly increase your labor costs.
State requirements create real cost differences for your business:
California: 1.5x pay after 8 hours in a day and 2x after 12 hours, along with required meal and rest breaks. Longer shifts can significantly increase daily labor costs compared with federal rules.
Alaska and Nevada: Daily overtime applies after 8 hours. Nevada’s rule generally applies to most lower-wage hourly roles commonly found in restaurants and retail.
Colorado: Daily overtime begins after 12 hours, and the state also requires paid rest breaks during the shift.
These daily overtime and break requirements limit scheduling flexibility and can raise labor costs compared with states that follow federal weekly-only overtime rules.
When Do Daily Hour Limits Apply?
Daily hour limits primarily apply in four specific situations that may affect your business:
Youth hourly teams ages 14-15: Federal law imposes strict limits with a maximum of 3 hours per day on school days and 8 hours per day during non-school weeks. Work is prohibited during school hours. Work is limited to 7 AM-7 PM during school weeks, and 7 AM-9 PM during the summer period (June 1 through Labor Day). In contrast, hourly team members ages 16-17 have no federal daily or weekly hour restrictions, according to DOL Fact Sheet #43.
Specific industries: Trucking faces 11-hour driving limits after 10 consecutive hours off-duty, and healthcare residents are limited to 80 hours per week, with individual shifts capped at 24 consecutive hours plus up to 6 additional hours for transitions. However, restaurants and retail face no federal industry restrictions.
White-collar exemptions: Assistant managers earning $684+ weekly may be exempt from overtime only if they meet strict duties tests, including demonstrating actual managerial authority and supervisory responsibilities, not merely holding a manager title.
Predictive scheduling laws: Fair Workweek laws in cities like San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, and states including Oregon now require advance notice of schedules (typically 7-14 days) and impose "predictability pay" penalties for last-minute changes. These laws also typically mandate rest periods between shifts and may limit schedule flexibility beyond what daily hour limits alone would impose.
The key compliance rule: You must follow all applicable laws, both federal and state, and comply with whichever standard provides greater team member protection. For example, a California restaurant must follow daily overtime and break rules, while a Texas location follows federal weekly overtime only.
How Does Homebase Help with Hour Tracking and Compliance?
Homebase automatically tracks daily and weekly hours and flags potential overtime based on federal and state rules, including daily overtime in states like California or Colorado and required meal or rest breaks where applicable. This helps you spot compliance issues before they affect payroll.
For businesses with multiple locations, Homebase applies the correct regulations for each state and centralizes hours, breaks, and overtime data in one place, reducing manual calculations and simplifying recordkeeping.
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Sources and Methodology
At Homebase, we rely on up-to-date, authoritative sources to ensure every Question Center article reflects accurate guidance for small business owners. We start with primary information from federal labor agencies, verify details using state overtime and break requirements, and use reputable compliance resources only to supplement—not replace—official law.
For this piece, we referenced federal guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Fact Sheets on hours worked and overtime requirements, as well as state-level regulations from California, Colorado, Alaska, Nevada, New York, Illinois, and other state workforce agencies.