I am a non-exempt employee and recently received a promotion at my company. Part of that promotion includes a regular rotation of carrying our 24-hour service BlackBerry. During those two weeks I am on-call 24/7 for service.

My question: We carry the 24-hour phone for 2 week allotments starting on a Friday and ending on a Thursday. If we have to carry the phone for an additional day (or more), but not for another full 2-week period, can the company refuse to pay for that partial on-call time?

As an example: The person scheduled to carry the phone after me on my first rotation wound up going out of town on an emergency, and I had to carry the phone for an extra 4 days. I was told that I would not be paid for that time, only for the two weeks for which I was scheduled.

Any resources that might clear this up - or resources regarding pay for on-call non-exempt employees in general - are appreciated!

Are you being paid for being on call now during your assigned two weeks?

Merely carrying a device where you can be called if there is an issue does not automatically make the entire time compensable.

We are compensated for being on-call while we are carrying the phone, yes - regardless of whether we receive calls or not. However, we receive pay for carrying the phone for a two-week block; if, for some reason, we have to carry the phone for, say, two weeks and 3 days, the compensation is the same.

I wasn't sure if there were any laws regarding this or not. That's why I asked. :)

They are only REQUIRED to pay you for any time for which you have actually been called into work. So it sounds as if, regardless of the extra days, you've been paid quite a little more than the law actually requires. ;)