Firefighter work cycles and FLSA overtime: 24/48, 48/96, and the §7(k) 28-day rule

A firefighter on a 24/48 schedule works an average of 56 hours a week — a full 16 hours past the 40-hour line most workers know. And yet many firefighters see far less overtime than that gap suggests. The reason is the FLSA §7(k) exemption, which moves the overtime threshold up and lets your department decide how long the work period is. On a fire schedule, that work-period length is the single biggest factor in how much overtime you actually earn.

This guide covers the common fire work cycles, the §7(k) thresholds that apply to them, the 24-hour sleep-time rules that quietly shrink your paid hours, and how shift trades are counted.

The firefighter overtime baseline: 53 hours, not 40

Under §7(k), fire protection overtime starts at 53 hours per 7-day work period — and scales up to 212 hours per 28-day work period. The full table of maximums by work-period length is in 29 CFR §553.230. If you're new to the §7(k) exemption itself — who qualifies, why it exists — read FLSA overtime for firefighters & police first; this guide builds on it.

Common fire work cycles and their hours

• 24/48: one 24-hour shift on, two days off, repeating. Over a three-day cycle that's 8 hours a day, or about 56 hours a week.
• 48/96: two 24-hour shifts on, four days off. Same 56-hour weekly average, with longer stretches of work and rest.
• Kelly schedule:a 24/48 base with a recurring “Kelly day” removed to pull the average down toward a contracted target (often around 53 hours). The Kelly day is the lever departments use to land near the §7(k) line.

The Kelly schedule deserves its own treatment because of how it makes your paycheck swing from period to period — see the Kelly schedule pay guide. Here we're focused on how these cycles interact with the overtime rule.

How the 28-day work period changes everything

Take a firefighter on a straight 24/48 averaging 56 hours a week, whose department uses a 28-day work period:

• 56 hours × 4 weeks = 224 hours in the work period.
• The 28-day threshold is 212 hours, so 224 − 212 = 12 hours of overtime per cycle.

That steady ~12 hours every 28 days is the baseline a 24/48 firefighter earns. Shorten the work period and the math shifts: under a 7-day work period, a week with three 24-hour shifts (72 hours) generates 72 − 53 = 19 overtime hours, while a two-shift week (48 hours) generates none. The long-and-short weeks of a fire rotation produce far more overtime under a short work period than a long one — which is exactly why most fire departments adopt the longest §7(k) work period they can.

24-hour shifts and sleep time

On a 24-hour shift, not every hour is necessarily paid. Under 29 CFR §553.222, the rules split on the length of your tour:

• Tours under 24 hours: all of it counts as hours worked, including sleep and meal time. Nothing can be carved out.
• Tours of exactly 24 hours: you and your employer can agree to exclude up to 8 hours of sleep time — but only if you're given adequate sleeping facilities and can usually get at least five hours of uninterrupted sleep. If a call breaks your sleep, that time gets added back as hours worked.

This matters for overtime because excluded sleep time doesn't count toward your §7(k) threshold. A department that excludes 8 hours per 24-hour shift is reducing the hours that can push you into overtime — so whether sleep-time exclusion is in your contract is worth knowing.

What counts — and how trades are handled

Holdovers, mandatory overtime, and callbacks all count as hours worked and add to your work-period total. Shift trades are the exception: under 29 CFR §553.31, when you voluntarily swap a shift with a coworker, the hours count for the person originally scheduled — not the one who actually worked them. A trade you pick up doesn't inflate your own hours toward overtime, and one you give away doesn't reduce them. Departments must track trades, but the swapped time is invisible to the §7(k) calculation.

How to check your own paycheck

1. Confirm your work period. 7, 14, 24, 27, or 28 days — it's in your contract, and it sets your threshold (53, 106, 182, 204, or 212 hours respectively, scaling with length).
2. Total your actual hours, minus any agreed sleep-time exclusion and any traded-away shifts, plus holdovers and mandatory OT.
3. Subtract the threshold and compare the result to the overtime on your stub. A mismatch is a number you can take to payroll.

How DutyPay handles it

DutyPay supports 24/48, 48/96, and Kelly rotations, lets you set your exact §7(k) work period, and tracks actual hours — including holdovers and trades — against your threshold. It reconciles the projection with your real paycheck so an under-counted overtime cycle becomes visible. It's free.

Further reading

• FLSA overtime for firefighters & police — the §7(k) rule in full.
• The Kelly schedule pay guide — why your paycheck swings across a 24/48 Kelly rotation.
• For firefighters — how DutyPay handles fire schedules, or try the quick paycheck calculator.