Seattle, WA asked in Employment Law for Washington

Q: Can my employer make me shorten my regular hours to accommodate working the weekend to avoid paying me overtime?

My normal work schedule is Monday through Friday. Occasionally we do expos and shows that require us to work over the weekend. Normally we would be able to work our regular 80 hours and anything that we worked over the weekend would be considered overtime. This time, we were asked to shorten our regular hours to accommodate the hours we would be working over the weekend. Essentially I would have to shorten my regular hours to 76 hours and then work 4 hours over the weekend. Can they do this?

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1 Lawyer Answer

A: Yes, there are no laws that require employers to offer any particular amount of hours or overtime. As long as you're paid overtime for any hours over 40 per workweek that you do work, your employer can reduce your hours to avoid employees accruing overtime hours.

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