First Responders Entitled to Overtime

First responder would include occupations, such as police officers, detectives, deputy sheriffs, state troopers, highway patrol officers, investigators, inspectors, correctional officers, parole or probation officers, park rangers, fire fighters, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, ambulance personnel, rescue workers, hazardous materials workers and other employees engaged in similar work. Such work would include preventing, controlling or extinguishing fires of any type; rescuing fire, crime or accident victims; preventing or detecting crimes; conducting investigations or inspections for violations of law; performing surveillance; pursuing, restraining and apprehending suspects; detaining or supervising suspected and convicted criminals, including those on probation or parole; interviewing witnesses; interrogating and fingerprinting suspects; preparing investigative reports; or other similar work. First responders are generally non-exempt and are protected by the minimum wage and overtime provisions of the FLSA. However, non-exempt employees employed by a local government (e.g., city or county) may be subject to special overtime rules for public sector employees. Among these special overtime rules is that first responders may work alternative work periods and have a different threshold for overtime than the forty hours per week, eight hours per day that exists for other occupations.

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