I am curious if the state of SC has a law or a regulation stating that employess who carry pagers madated by there work are supposed to be paid. I work for a company on night shift and am forced to carry a pager at least once a month. We work night shift and work 3 on 3 off, so on our 3 off if we have the pager we have to continue staying up at night and sleeping during the day so we will be fit to come in at work as soon as they call. Is this legal? Can anyone help me find the law or regulation that deals with this type of issue? Thanks in advance.

There are 2 types of on-call as defined by DOL: "Waiting to be engaged" (non-compensable) and "engaged to be waiting" (compensable). Under "waiting to be engaged" you are basically free to do as you please until you receive a page (or a call). The waiting time is non-compensable but the actual call time is paid. Under "engaged to be waiting" you have strict limitations placed on your time for waiting. Often you are not permitted to leave the work premises in cases like these. In this example, the waiting time is compensable and so is the call time.

What if we are not allowed to drink or go out of a 1 hour window? It just doesnt make sense that we should not b paid to carry a beeper when we have to give up so much time with our families.

IMHO that still is not restrictive enough to make the waiting time compensable. If you disagree, you make ask DOL for a determination. It's ultimately what they say that counts.