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FLSA 7(k) Overtime Calculator

Fire and EMS overtime is not measured on a 40-hour week. Pick your declared work period from 7 to 28 days, enter your hours, and get the overtime you are actually owed against the correct threshold, 212 hours for a 28-day fire period. This is the math generic calculators get wrong.

Total on-duty hours across the whole work period, including any extra shifts.

The overtime work period your department declares under FLSA 7(k). Fire agencies most often use 28 days.

Your straight-time hourly rate. Overtime is paid at 1.5x this rate for hours above the cap.

Result

28-day work period

Over the cap
Straight-time cap212h
Hours worked224h
Overtime hours12h
Est. overtime pay$540/period

You worked about 12 hours over the 212-hour straight-time cap for a 28-day period, so roughly 12 hours are owed at the overtime rate, about $540 in overtime pay this period at 1.5x your rate.

Thresholds follow 29 CFR 553.230 (fire protection employees). This is an estimate for planning, not legal or payroll advice. EMS-only agencies under the law-enforcement 7(k) category use a different cap.

212 h28-day fire capthe 212 rule
7 to 28Work-period daysyou declare one
~7.57 hCap per dayscales linearly
~12 h24/48 built-in OTper 28 days
Start here

What the FLSA 7(k) exemption actually is

Section 7(k) of the Fair Labor Standards Act is the public-safety exemption. It lets a fire or EMS employer measure overtime over a work period of 7 to 28 days instead of the standard 40-hour week that covers most jobs. The employer declares a work-period length, applies the cap for that length, and pays overtime only on the hours worked above the cap. The rules live in 29 CFR 553.230.

This is not a loophole, it is a recognition that fire and EMS schedules are built on long tours, not eight-hour office days. A firefighter on a 24-hour shift is not working a 40-hour week in any normal sense, so Congress gave fire and EMS employers a longer measuring stick. The tradeoff is that the threshold is higher than 40 hours a week, which is exactly why so many overtime estimates for firefighters come out wrong: they use the wrong measuring stick.

The 212 rule

The threshold scales with your work period

There is no single magic number. The 212-hour figure everyone quotes is the cap for the longest allowed work period, 28 days. Shorter work periods have lower caps, and they scale almost perfectly linearly at about 7.57 hours per day.

So the question is never just how many hours you worked, it is how many hours you worked in your department's declared work period, measured against that period's cap. A department on a 14-day period pays overtime after 106 hours; a department on a 28-day period pays it after 212. Same firefighter, same hours, different overtime, purely because of the declared period.

FLSA 7(k) straight-time caps (fire)

Maximum non-overtime hours by declared work-period length. Source: 29 CFR 553.230(c). The ratio is about 7.57 hours per day.

Work periodStraight-time cap
28 days212 h
27 days204 h
26 days197 h
25 days189 h
24 days182 h
21 days159 h
14 days106 h
7 days53 h

An estimate for planning, not legal or payroll advice. EMS agencies under the law-enforcement 7(k) category use a different cap.

The formula

How to calculate your overtime

The formula is simple once you use the right threshold: overtime equals the hours you worked in the period minus the cap for that period. Add up every on-duty hour across the whole work period, including held-over calls and picked-up shifts, look up the cap for your declared period length, and subtract. Anything above zero is paid at the overtime rate.

Worked example: a 24/48 over a 28-day period

Hours worked in the 28-day period224 h
Minus the 28-day fire cap- 212 h
Overtime owed= 12 h

That 12 hours is built into the schedule. It is owed every 28-day period whether or not the firefighter ever volunteers for a single extra shift. Every hour worked on top of the base rotation stacks on top of that 12.

By rotation

Built-in overtime by schedule

Three-platoon rotations average 56 hours a week (168 hours split across 3 crews), which lands above the cap. A four-platoon 24/72 averages 42 hours a week and lands under it. The schedule you run decides whether overtime is baked in before anyone picks up a shift.

24/48 rotation~224 h / 28 days~12 OT hrs48/96 rotation~224 h / 28 days~12 OT hrs24/72 rotation (4 platoons)~168 h / 28 days~0 OT hrs
The common mistake

Where the 40-hour myth overstates your overtime

A generic overtime calculator assumes overtime starts after 40 hours a week. Run a firefighter's schedule through it and the numbers explode. Take that same 24/48 at about 224 hours in a 28-day period. On a 40-hour basis you would count four weeks at 40, so 160 straight-time hours, and call the other 64 hours overtime. That is wildly wrong.

Under the correct 7(k) math the overtime is 224 minus 212, which is 12 hours, not 64. The 40-hour approach overstates the overtime by roughly four to five times. That gap is not rounding, it is the difference between measuring against a 40-hour week and measuring against a 212-hour, 28-day work period. If a calculator does not ask you for your work-period length, it is almost certainly making this mistake.

Know your category

EMS and fire can use different thresholds

The 212-hour cap applies specifically to employees engaged in fire protection. FLSA 7(k) also covers law enforcement, and that category uses a different, lower schedule of caps. For a 28-day period, the law-enforcement cap is 171 hours rather than 212.

This matters for EMS. Where medics ride with a fire department and are cross-trained in fire suppression, they are usually treated as fire protection employees and the 212 cap applies. An EMS-only agency, or medics classified under the law-enforcement side, can fall under the lower cap instead, which means overtime kicks in sooner for the same hours. Confirm which category your people are in before you trust any single threshold.

Pulling hours down

How a Kelly day changes the overtime

The built-in overtime on a 24/48 or 48/96 is expensive, so many departments add a recurring day off, a Kelly day, to pull the average down. Removing one 24-hour shift on a regular cadence lowers the hours worked in each work period, and if it drops the period total below the cap, the built-in overtime disappears.

One caution: adding a recurring Kelly day is what lowers the average, not the cycle length. A pure 9-day Kelly rotation still averages the same 56 hours a week as a plain 24/48; only an added, recurring day off pulls the average down toward 50 or 51 hours a week and under the 212-hour cap. The dedicated Kelly day calculator models each contract variation and shows exactly where your work period lands.

FLSA 7(k) questions

Common questions

What is the FLSA 7(k) exemption?

FLSA Section 7(k) is the public-safety exemption that lets fire and EMS employers measure overtime over a work period of 7 to 28 days instead of a standard 40-hour week (29 CFR 553.230). Instead of paying overtime after 40 hours in a week, the employer declares a work-period length, and overtime is owed only on the hours worked above the cap for that length. It exists because fire and EMS schedules are built on long shifts, not eight-hour office days.

How many hours can a firefighter work before overtime under 7(k)?

For fire protection employees on the longest allowed work period, 28 days, the straight-time cap is 212 hours. Every hour worked above 212 in that 28-day period is overtime. Shorter work periods scale down at about 7.57 hours per day: a 27-day period caps at 204 hours, a 14-day period at 106 hours, and a 7-day period at 53 hours.

What are the FLSA 7(k) thresholds for shorter work periods?

The fire caps scale roughly linearly at 7.57 hours per day: 28 days = 212 hours, 27 days = 204, 26 days = 197, 25 days = 189, 24 days = 182, 21 days = 159, 14 days = 106, and 7 days = 53. Your department declares one work-period length and applies the matching cap; use the calculator above to see the exact threshold and your overtime for the length your agency uses.

Do firefighters on a 24/48 schedule get overtime?

Yes, usually about 12 hours of overtime per 28-day period. A straight 24/48 rotation runs about 224 hours in a 28-day work period, and the fire cap is 212 hours, so 224 minus 212 leaves roughly 12 hours of built-in overtime every period before anyone picks up an extra shift. A 48/96 works out to the same 224 hours and the same 12 hours of overtime. A 24/72 runs 4 platoons at about 168 hours per 28 days, under the cap, so it has essentially no scheduled overtime.

Is EMS overtime the same as fire under 7(k)?

Not always. The 212-hour cap applies to employees engaged in fire protection. Employees engaged in law enforcement, which some EMS roles are classified under, use a separate 7(k) schedule with different caps (for example, a 28-day law-enforcement period caps at 171 hours, not 212). An EMS-only agency should confirm which 7(k) category its people fall under, because the threshold, and therefore the overtime, changes with it.

How do I calculate my department's overtime?

Overtime equals the hours worked in the work period minus the threshold for that period. Find your declared work-period length, look up its cap (28 days = 212 for fire), add up every on-duty hour in the period including held-over calls and picked-up shifts, and subtract the cap. Anything above zero is paid at the overtime rate. The calculator above does this for you: enter your hours and pick your period, and it returns the cap, the overtime hours, and an estimated overtime pay figure.

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