On-Call Pay: When Waiting Time Counts as Paid Work Under Federal Law
- If you must stay at or near work and can’t use the time for yourself, on-call time is work time.
- If you only have to leave word where you can be reached, it generally isn’t.
- Waiting is paid when it is part of the job (“engaged to wait”) and unpaid when you are fully released until a set time (“waiting to be engaged”).
Many jobs, from maintenance techs to drivers to IT support, involve time spent waiting. Whether that time is paid depends on how much control your employer keeps over it.
On-call time
According to 29 CFR 785.17, an employee “required to remain on call on the employer’s premises or so close thereto that he cannot use the time effectively for his own purposes is working while ‘on call.’” By contrast, an employee who is “merely required to leave word at his home or with company officials where he may be reached is not working while on call.”
Engaged to wait: paid
29 CFR 785.15 lists examples of on-duty waiting that counts as work: a stenographer reading while waiting for dictation, a firefighter playing checkers while waiting for alarms, a factory worker waiting for a machine to be repaired, and a repair worker waiting for a customer’s site to be ready. The test is that the waiting is “an integral part of the job” and the time “belongs to and is controlled by the employer.”
Waiting to be engaged: unpaid
29 CFR 785.16 says off-duty time isn’t work time when you are completely relieved from duty, told in advance you may leave, and told you won’t have to start work until a definite time. Its example is a truck driver who drives from Washington, D.C. to New York City, arrives at noon and is fully relieved until 6 p.m.; that idle time is not working time. But a driver who has to wait while the truck is loaded is working.
What to track if you’re on call
- How fast you must respond and whether you must stay at or near the site.
- How often you actually get called in.
- Any restrictions on where you can go or what you can do.
- Time spent actually working calls, which is always work time.
Courts weigh these facts case by case, so a written on-call policy plus your own log is the best evidence if you think you’re being shorted. Sources: 29 CFR 785.15, 29 CFR 785.16, 29 CFR 785.17.
Published October 27, 2026. Sources are linked in the text.
Header image: original graphic by JobPayRaise.com.
Comments (1)
Worth adding: if your employer has you put on required gear or prep a machine before your shift, that can count as work too. The regulations give the example of a lathe operator who oils, greases or cleans the machine at the start of the day; that is an integral part of the principal activity and is compensable. Source: 29 CFR 785.24.