Hours of work
Ordinary hours are an employee's normal and regular hours of work, which do not attract overtime rates.
Awards, enterprise agreements and other registered agreements set out any:
- maximum ordinary hours in a day, week, fortnight or month,
- minimum ordinary hours in a day,
- times of the day ordinary hours can be worked (eg. between 7am - 7pm).
The ordinary hours can be different for full-time, part-time and casual employees.
Spread of hours
The time of the day ordinary hours are worked is called the spread of hours (eg. between 7am - 7pm). Time worked outside the spread of ordinary hours can attract overtime rates.
Find more information about maximum and minimum hours of work and the spread of hours in your award by selecting from the list below.
You do not have javascript enabled. Please select your preferred industry from the links below, to view your tailored content for this section.
- Building, construction and on-site trades
- Clerical
- Contract cleaning services
- Don't know
- Hair and beauty
- Health support services
- Horticulture
- Hospitality
- Manufacturing
- Other
- Real estate
- Retail
- Road Transport
- Security
- Social, community, disability and home care services
- Storage services and wholesale
Maximum weekly hours
An employee can work a maximum of 38 hours in a week unless an employer asks them to work reasonable extra hours. See our Maximum weekly hours fact sheet.
Source reference: Fair Work Act 2009 s.62 
Think a mistake might have been made?
Mistakes can happen. The best way to fix them usually starts with talking.
Check out our Fixing a workplace problem section for practical advice on:
- figuring out if a mistake has been made
- talking to your employer or employee about fixing it
- getting help from us if you can't resolve it.
Want to save this information for later?
If you might need to read this information again, save it for later so you can access it quickly and easily.
You might also be interested in
Page reference No: 2146