9/80 Work Schedule

A simple definition:

"9/80s work schedule" is a compressed work schedule which consists of eight 9-hour days, one 8-hour day, and one day off in a 2-week period.

Under a typical 9/80 arrangement, employees work four 9-hour days, followed by an 8-hour workday that is split into two 4-hour periods. The first 4-hour period ends the first workweek and the next 4-hour period starts the following workweek. The employee then works four more 9-hour days in the second workweek and gets one day off.

The key to successfully adhering to the 9/80 work week is to keep in mind that the first workweek ends midday the first Friday and the second workweek starts after midday the same day. This way both workweeks will consist of 40 hours and no overtime wages will be applied.

This is important in order to keep one week periods as the basis for calculating payroll.

Read DOL's official information about the compressed workweek here.

1. A day of sick leave equals 9 hours sick unless it’s on the 8-hour day.

2. If a holiday falls on the scheduled day off, the employee receives 8 hours off to be used within 12 months from the date of the holiday.

3. If a holiday falls on a 9-hour work day, the time record should read 8 hours holiday, 1 hour vacation.

4. Nonexempt employees who work more than 40 hours in the standard work week must be paid overtime wages (1.5x regular hourly fee), based on the work week of noon Friday to noon Friday.

5. Make sure that employees have their day off as a fixed day (usually every other Friday) and don’t let them change/switch these without prior notice. If an employee asks to take this Friday off and work the following Friday (the day they are ordinarily scheduled to be off duty) this will result in overtime hours worked in one of the two workweeks in the two week pay period.

6. The alternating work day schedule must be strictly 4+4 hours. Because the workweek in a 9/80 schedule begins four hours into their eight hour shift on Friday (alternating work day), working more or working fewer hours before the midday cut-off will cause overtime as well.

If you manage to avoid these potential pitfalls, the 9/80 schedule might be something to consider for boosting your employee productivity and engagement.

Go ahead and ask your team about whether they would like to give this arrangement a go and they will be pleased to see you giving them flexibility in deciding their work schedules.

The easiest way to monitor the individual schedules once they have been decided upon is to track your employees' work hours with an online time clock app. You will be able to unobtrusively monitor their schedules by letting them clock in and clock out themselves with a few simple clicks.